In the United States, gluten is used in products such as baked goods, meat and fish products, pet foods, and breakfast cereals. Gluten and starch are obtained by wheat flour fractionation. Our laboratory developed a superior method of wheat flour fractionation. It is simple, fast, efficient, requires minimum processing, and generates little waste water.
Further research is needed to refine the process to make it applicable to the industry.
Our research now focuses on decreasing the amount of processing and water in this new method of wheat flour fractionation and shortening the processing time from an hour to less than 25 minutes. The study also evaluates the quality of the obtained gluten by total lipid content, a sodium dodecyl sedimentation test, and extractability of proteins by the Osbourne method. The results of these tests are being related to the vitality of gluten and its performance in baking. Results and Future Research Gluten and prime starch obtained in our laboratory were characterized by yield, composition, and several functional properties. The applied method is simple, fast, requires a minimal total water use, and produces minimum waste water.