Impact of Cactus Mucilage Powder as New Natural Hydrocolloid on Physicochemical, Staling Rate and Sensory Characteristics of Gluten-free Egyptian Flat Bread

Abstract

The growing market for gluten-free (GF) products has encouraged the development of several GF bakery products that aim to mimic the high standards of wheat bakery goods. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of cactus mucilage powder (CMP) as new natural hydrocolloid on the characteristics of GF flat bread. Wheat flour was replaced by rice flour (RF) as a GF cereal. Different levels of Xanthan gum (XG), CMP or their combination between them were used to investigate their impact on physicochemical properties, alkaline water retention capacity (AWRC), staling rate (SR) and sensory characteristics of the resultant GF flat bread. Results showed that addition of XG or CMP, as natural hydrocolloids, resulted in significant increases in flat bread moisture (P ˂ 0.05). In addition, the crust color of GF flat bread was significantly lighter (L* value) than the control. Increases in AWRC were noticed as a result of XG and CMP addition. On the other hand, low concentrations of XG led to decrease in the staling rate while high concentrations resulted in slight increase in the staling rate. Addition of CMP into flat bread formulas resulted in increases in the staling rate of the investigated samples. Combination of XG with CMP led to reduction in the staling rate of flat bread comparing with CMP only. Furthermore, the ability of different formulae to retain alkaline water decreased as the storage period was increased. All gluten-free formulae containing hydrocolloids received significantly higher (P ˂ 0.05) sensory scores compared to the control.