The Food Issue
2015
grainswest.com
23
Plant breeders in Canada continuallywork to ensure grain plants
can be as strong as possible by selecting genes that increase both dis-
ease resistance and yield. The use of gluten has also changed, since
the properties that make it a key component in bread and pasta also
make it a good additive for other products. Gluten extraction is car-
ried out on an industrial scale and is added to awide range of
products to add elasticity, strength and shelf life.
The use of steel
rollers sped upwheat
processing greatly
and allowed proces-
sors to strip away the
wheat kernel’s bran
and germ to create
white flour. Steel-roll-
er gristmills used steel
rollers to crush kernels
into flour. Theywere
easy tomaintain and
processed flour in
much higher volumes
than stonemills.
Gluten’s properties allowproducts like
pizza dough to stretch and spinwithout
breaking during processing. They also
help to increase shelf life.
Gluten is used in a surprising number of products, not just
food. It can be found in some types of mascara, pickles, lic-
orice, pet food, medications, ice cream, hot dogs, french fries
and soy sauce. The next time you curl your eyelashes or have a
lick of ice cream, just remember youmight be getting up close
and personal with gluten.
YOUCANMAKEGLUTENATHOME!
OLDSCHOOL VS. NEWSCHOOL
Gluten has been a natural part of grains for years, but
a new idea is that heritagewheat varieties like Red Fife
are better to eat thanmodern varieties grown today.
One of the charges of WilliamDavis’s well-known
book,
Wheat Belly
, is that nutritional characteristics in
wheat varieties, including gluten content, have been
altered over time, and not for the better. TheHeritage
Wheat Study conducted by Agriculture andAgri-Food
Canada (AAFC) sought to answer whether there have
been any changes inHard Red SpringWheat varieties
over time and, if so, what they are. The study included
20wheat varieties, both heritage andmodern. These
varieties were analyzed for their milling and baking
properties as well as bioactive components such as an-
tioxidants, carbohydrates, fibre and proteins (including
glutenin and gliadin).
The study’s final report found no substantial differ-
ences between heritage varieties andmodern varie-
ties in terms of proteins, antioxidants, carbohydrates
and other nutritional characteristics, according to
Nancy Ames, an AAFC research scientist who worked
on the project.
Mixwheat flour withwater
and knead into dough.
Run coldwater over the
dough towash the starch out.
Stopwhen you have a yellow-
ish, stretchy blob, and voila—
you nowhave gluten!
