Gluten-free: Improving its taste, texture and price point

The gluten-free category is booming. With a global market value of $6.45bn and a CAGR of 9.8% (Grand View Research), it’s clear that the sector is attracting its fair share of consumers.

Nevertheless, several factors are holding it back. The industry still has a long way to go in terms of price parity, and gluten-free consumers are still paying more for less, compared with those who eat gluten.

Secondly, there are several flavour and functional aspects of gluten flours that can just do more than gluten-free options.

Finally, in a market that increasingly values health, gluten-free must up its game when it comes to providing consumers with the right nutrients.

Nevertheless, the industry is working hard both to make gluten-free products more accessible, and also more appealing, for consumers.

Improving flavour

One of the key differences between gluten-containing products and gluten-free options, is flavour.

“Without gluten, it is difficult to achieve a similar structure and such a rich and complex flavour,” explains Veronica Rubio, general secretary of the Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS).

“Gluten contributes to the development of flavour during baking through chemical reactions. Gluten-free flours have a more neutral flavour, making it difficult to obtain intense and complex flavours.”

Another way to overcome the taste problem is through biotechnology.

“Research is being conducted to modify the properties of gluten-free flours and obtain products with a flavour more similar to gluten, or in the use of specific bacterial pools, which through fermentation can reduce the quantity of gluten while maintaining the aroma and nutritional characteristics of wheat flour.”

Getting the texture right

While it’s come a long way, optimising texture is still a key area of focus for gluten-free products.

Alternative flours, like rice or corn, explains AOECS’s Rubio, do not have the same properties as wheat flour, and thus do not form the same elastic network as gluten.

Indeed, because of the difficulty of getting texture right, products where the texture is important can present the biggest challenge.

“Some of the most challenging gluten-free products to replicate accurately often involve those that rely heavily on the unique properties of gluten, specifically ‘soft’ or ‘leavened’ products. Products like fresh bread, pastries, and cakes are particularly difficult to replicate,” Rubio explains.

Puff pastry products are also difficult to replicate in gluten-free form, according to a spokesperson for the organisation Gluten-Free Industry Association (GFIA).

This is due to the fact that gluten is the structure that supports the layers, or laminations, in puff pastry, helping to create its beloved light texture by creating and supporting the air pockets. Finding an alternative gluten-free protein for this function, the spokesperson explains, has been very difficult.

There are a number of ways that the right texture can be achieved.

For example, the addition of hydrocolloids like xanthan gum can improve cohesion whilst mimicking gluten’s function.

“In order to mimic the properties of gluten, specifically its ability to make the dough elastic without tearing, gluten-free bakers need to use alternative ingredients like xanthan gum, starches and alternative flours, such as rice flour,” explains the GFIA spokesperson.

“As you can imagine, using ingredients like these makes it very difficult to mimic the taste of gluten-containing breads and pastries that consumers expect.”

Achieving price-parity

Another major issue for gluten-free products is price. According to research by the organisation UK Debt Expert, for example, UK shoppers on a gluten-free diet are paying 37% more than those who eat gluten. Around 4% eat gluten, despite the health risks, because of cost concerns.

The reasons for this are varied. One of the key drivers of cost reduction is often economies of scale. Because the market for gluten-free products is so much smaller than that for gluten-containing ones, the scale of production is not as large and therefore products cannot be produced as cheaply.

Yet there are other bottlenecks. Another reason is the costs involved in testing products to ensure that they do not contain gluten, and keeping production free from gluten.

Finally, explains AOECS’s Rubio, is the cost of precuring specialised ingredients.

It doesn’t have to be this way. According to Rubio, the sector is exploring options such as increasing production in an effort to leverage economies of scale, and optimising its supply chain to reduce the cost of ingredients.

Thirdly, it’s looking to invest in R&D to find more cost-effective alternatives.

According to the GFIA spokesperson, these significant barriers mean that gluten-free may always be more expensive than gluten-containing products. Nevertheless, the price difference may decrease in the future due to such barriers lessening.

Beyond price, consumers often associate gluten-free products with a specific taste and texture, even in cases where they have been improved, explains AOECS’s Rubio.

Making products healthier

In the past, gluten-free products have been criticised due to, in some areas, comparing unfavourably to gluten-containing products in terms of health.

For example, they have lower levels of protein and dietary fibres than gluten-containing products.

Even when ingredients are added to fortify the products, it can cause problems. For example, adding dietary fibres during processing can negatively affect protein digestion.

They are also absent of several highly useful ingredients found in gluten-containing products, such as arabinoxylan, a dietary fibre found in wheat and rye, which acts as a prebiotic.

The industry has already made some progress in this area, according to the GFIA spokesperson, reducing past health disparities.

“In the past fats, salts and sugars were typically used to disguise the taste of ingredients like rice flour. However, by working closely with ingredients suppliers and thanks to industry innovation, we have seen significant breakthroughs in the makeup of ingredients as well as the addition of enzymes, meaning bakers can reduce the levels of fat, salts and sugars in gluten-free products.”

Nevertheless, many issues still need to be overcome. There are several strategies for doing this, AOECS’s Rubio explains.

For example, the industry should increase availability of gluten-free products made with healthy ingredients such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and lean protein sources.

It should also formulate products so that they have lower levels of sodium, sugar and saturated fat.

Thirdly, while, as seen above, sometimes coming with trade-offs, fortification is also a good way of improving the nutritional content of gluten-free products.

Contamination

One of the ways in which gluten-free is made costlier is through ensuring that there is no contamination of gluten-containing products.

Contamination is a greater problem in specific cases. For example, oats.

“An even greater challenge is creating gluten-free products from raw materials such as oats that is often contaminated. This ingredient, very useful to coeliac people under a nutritional point of view, requires more extensive analytical testing, which can increase production costs significantly‚” explains AOECS’s Rubio.