Nutritional facts regarding commercially available gluten-free bread worldwide: Recent advances and future challenges

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increase in demand for gluten-free (GF) products due to the growing number of gluten-intolerant and healthy individuals choosing to follow a gluten-free diet. Gluten-free bread (GFB) is a staple food product; therefore, many recent studies have reported the nutritional properties of GFB. However, an overview of the current ingredients and nutritional labeling of GFB worldwide has not yet been provided. This review aimed to gather the latest information regarding the most used ingredients in GFB formulations and the nutritional quality of these products from different countries, based on studies published in the last decade (2010–2020). Our analysis showed that GFB had a lower protein and a higher fat content than gluten-containing bread, and the dietary fiber content was highly variable between countries. Some studies have revealed a high glycaemic index in most products, which is associated with the extensive use of rice flour and starch as the main ingredients in GFB formulation. Label information presented significant differences from the data obtained through the chemical analysis of fiber and other nutritional components. Micronutrient fortification is not common in the GFB. The nutritional quality of commercial GFB is a crucial issue that needs to be addressed.

Keywords:

• Food labeling
• gluten-free
• glycaemic index
• ingredient list
• nutrition facts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Credit authorship contribution statement

Etiene Aguiar: Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Writing - original draft. Fernanda Santos: Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Writing - original draft. Urszula Krupa-Kozak: Writing - review & editing. Vanessa Capriles: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Investigation, Visualization, Writing - review & editing.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the grant (2019/15359-0) from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).