Susceptibility of wheat gluten to enzymatic hydrolysis following deamidation with acetic acid and sensory characteristics of the resultant hydrolysates

The effect of acetic acid and hydrochloric acid (HCl) deamidation pretreatment on the susceptibility of wheat gluten to enzymatic hydrolysis by Pancreatin and sensory characteristics of the resultant hydrolysates was investigated. At two degrees of deamidation (24% and 60%, with or without moisture-heating, respectively), wheat gluten pretreated by acetic acid deamidation was more susceptible to be hydrolyzed as evaluated by the hydrolysis degree, nitrogen solubility index, titratable acid amount and free carbohydrate content of the hydrolysates. Wheat gluten pretreated by acetic acid deamidation at a degree of 24% exhibited the highest susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis. Moisture-heating (121 °C, 10 min) in the deamidation pretreatment decreased the susceptibility of wheat gluten to enzymatic hydrolysis and the peptide factions of ≤3000 Da in the hydrolysates due to the formation of larger molecule weight aggregates. The hydrolysates prepared from acetic acid deamidated wheat gluten showed more intense glutamate-like and sauce-scented taste and better nutritional characteristics.