Wheat gluten: production, properties and application

Gluten, the dough-forming protein of wheat flour, is important for a range of technological applications from supporting the baking performances of leavened products to the development of new food protein ingredients and other biomaterials. The past five decades have seen the rise of gluten as a commodity in its own right, through the large-scale industrial separation of gluten from wheat starch, together with the controlled drying processes to retain its functional properties. The resulting vital gluten is most widely used in bakery products. However, new technologies are being increasingly explored to modify the structure and thus the functionality of this unique protein ingredient to provide a range of functional properties at a more modest price than its competitors such as milk and soy proteins.