A review of gluten detoxification in wheat for food applications: approaches, mechanisms, and implications

Abstract

With the improved knowledge of gluten-related disorders, especially celiac disease (CD), the market of gluten-free food is growing. However, the current gluten-free diet still presents challenges in terms of nutrition, acceptability, and cost due to the absence of gluten. It is important to note that gluten-related allergies or sensitivities have different underlying causes. And individuals with mild non-celiac gluten disorder symptoms may not necessarily require the same gluten-free treatments. Scientists are actively seeking alternative solutions for these consumers. This review delves into the various strategies employed by researchers for detoxifying gluten or modifying its main protein, gliadin, including genetic treatment, transamidation and deamidation, hydrolysis, and microbial treatments. The mechanisms, constraints of these techniques, their current utilization in food items, as well as their implications for gluten-related disorders, are discussed in detail. Although there is still a gap in the application of these methods as alternative solutions in the real market, the summary provided by our review could be beneficial for peers in enriching their basic ideas and developing more applicable solutions for wheat gluten detoxification.

Keywords:

• Gluten
• gluten-related disorders
• gluten-free diet
• detoxification methods

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LZ23C200001), and the Major Project of Digital Plus Discipline Construction of Zhejiang Gongshang University (SZJ2022A010).