Protein Characteristics that Affect the Quality of Vital Wheat Gluten to be Used in Baking: A Review

The use of vital wheat gluten in the baking industry and wheat flour mills aims to improve the rheological characteristics of flour considered unsuitable to obtain products such as sliced bread, French bread, high-fiber breads, and other products that require strong flours. To improve characteristics such as flour strength, dough mixing tolerance, and bread volume, vital wheat gluten is added to flour at levels that can vary from 2% to 10% (flour basis), with 5% being a commonly used dosage. However, the vital wheat gluten commercialized in the market has few quality specifications, especially related to the characteristics of the proteins that constitute it and are responsible for the formation of the viscoelastic gluten network. Information on protein quality is important, because variations are observed in the technological quality of vital wheat gluten obtained from different sources, which could be associated to damage caused to proteins during the obtainment process. Several tests, either physical-chemical analyses, or rheological tests, are carried out to establish gluten quality; however, they are sometimes time-consuming and costly. Although these tests give good answers to specify gluten quality, flour mills, and the baking industries require fast and simple tests to evaluate the uses and/or dosage of vital gluten addition to wheat flour. This review covers the concepts, uses, obtainment processes, and quality analysis of vital wheat gluten, as well as simple tests to help identify details about protein quality of commercial vital wheat gluten.