The impact of different levels of oat β-glucan and water on gluten-free cake rheology and physicochemical characterisation

The demand for new gluten-free (GF) products is still very crucial issue in food industry. There is also a need for bioactive compounds and natural alternatives for food additives. For now, not only providing structure without gluten is major challenge, but also high sensory acceptance and nutritional value are on the top. This study is focused on the effect of high-purity oat beta-glucan as a structure-making agent on physicochemical and sensory properties of gluten-free yeast leavened cake. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to set the design of the experiment. Water and oat beta-glucan were chosen as independent variables. Enzymatic extraction was conducted in order to obtain pure oat beta-glucan (approx. 85%). Physicochemical and microstructure analyses, and a consumer hedonic test were carried out to check the quality of the final product. As a last step, verification was undertaken to compare the predicted and experimental values of the results. The results showed that the optimisation process was crucial in obtaining high-quality, gluten-free yeast leavened cake. The optimised amounts of water and oat beta-glucan were 66.12% and 2.63% respectively. This proves that the application of oat beta-glucan to gluten-free products is possible and gives positive results in terms of texture, volume and sensory acceptance. Due to oat beta-glucan's pro-health benefits, the final product can be seen as a functional alternative for common gluten-free products in the market.