The use of high-in-β-glucan oat fibre powder as a structuring agent in gluten-free yeast-leavened cake.

The biggest challenge in the production of gluten-free baked products is creating a structure without gluten while maintaining physicochemical and sensory properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of applying oat β-glucan as the thickening and structure-making agent instead of xanthan (control sample), due to its pro-health technological properties, in yeast-leavened gluten-free cake. Thus, high-in-β-glucan oat fibre powder was incorporated into cake formulations as 5, 10, 15 and 20% replacement of rice or corn flour. The complex analysis of physicochemical and sensory properties was conducted, where texture and rheological aspects were the most important. An analysis of the correlation between rheological and physical properties was also conducted. Corn and rice cakes differed, but the results showed the increase of β-glucan, total dietary fibre, springiness, cohesiveness, storage (G') and loss (G″) modulus and the decrease of firmness and lightness. Improvement of porosity and volume was also noticed. Significant correlation was observed among G', G″, specific volume and texture components. Accelerated texture changes were noticed after 24 h of storage. To sum up, it is justified to incorporate oat fibre into gluten-free baked products, both to increase nutritional value and improve cake structure.