Gluten free biscuits prepared from buckwheat flour by incorporation of various gums: Physicochemical and sensory properties

Gluten-free bakery foodstuffs are a challenge for technologists and nutritionists because of difficulty in creating them and these are very much required for people suffering from celiac disease or for those intolerant or allergic to gluten. Buckwheat flour (BWF) was chosen as a gluten free source as this has been reported to have various polyphenolic compounds with antioxidant activity resulting in health benefits. Quality properties of BWF were compared with refined wheat flour (WF) and gums (guar gum, gum acacia, xanthan and gum tragacanth) were added in the concentration of 1 g/100 g to BWF. Incorporation of gums to BWF significantly (p < 0.05) affected various quality properties like water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity and emulsion activity. Biscuits prepared from BWF incorporated with gums were observed to have higher moisture content, diameter, thickness, weight and decreased fracture strength. Skilled panelists evaluated the sensory quality of the biscuits using nine point hedonic scale. Panelists rated the biscuits prepared from WF with best quality and those prepared from BWF with the lowest sensorial scores. The incorporation of gums to BWF however improved the sensory scores. Among the gums, addition of xanthan gum resulted in significant improvement in biscuit color, appearance, flavor and overall acceptability.