Use of fungal proteases and selected sourdough lactic acid bacteria for making wheat bread with an intermediate content of gluten

This study was aimed at combining the highest degradation of gluten during wheat flour fermentation with good structural and sensory features of the related bread. As estimated by R5-ELISA, the degree of degradation of immune reactive gluten was ca. 28%. Two-dimensional electrophoresis and RP-FPLC analyses showed marked variations of the protein fractions compared to the untreated flour. The comparison was also extended to in vitro effect of the peptic/tryptic-digests towards K562 and T84 cells. The flour with the intermediate content of gluten (ICG) was used for bread making, and compared to whole gluten (WG) bread. The chemical, structural and sensory features of the ICG bread approached those of the bread made with WG flour. The protein digestibility of the ICG bread was higher than that from WG flour. Also the nutritional quality, as estimated by different indexes, was the highest for ICG bread.