Development of gluten free breads from Colocasia esculenta flour blended with hydrocolloids and enzymes

Colocasia esculenta, belonging to the Araceae family, represents an attractive alternative as gluten-free (GF) main ingredient owing its healthy pattern. The aim was to explore the GF breadmaking potential of Colocasia spp. cormels flour, thermally treated or blended with hydrocolloids (HPMC, xanthan gum, guar gum), enzymes (glucose oxidase or proteases) or potato starch. A total of eight formulations were used to obtain GF bread-like products. Resulting breads were characterized based on their technological quality, but also on their functional quality by in vitro starch digestion. Colocasia spp. cormels flour-based breads displayed similar quality parameters observed in previous reported GF formulations. The addition of an endoprotease allowed developing breads with higher specific volume, but the alcalase type protease increased crumb softness. In general, resulting GF breads contained higher SDS and RS fraction than RDS fractions. A better starch digestibility pattern than those previously reported in GF breads was also observed, which confirm the potential of Colocasia spp. cormels flour as novel nutritive source of GF flours.