Effects of dietary fiber on the digestion and structure of gluten under different thermal processing conditions

Gluten is one of the major components in cereal. The dietary fiber is frequently retained or added in cereal products for health purpose in recent years. During the thermal processing, a complex interaction may occur between the dietary fiber and gluten, the interaction can affect the digestibility of gluten, but it has not been investigated detailedly. In this experiment, gluten was used as an example to study the effect of the interaction between dietary fiber and gluten during processing on gluten digestibility in a simulation system. It was found that the addition of dietary fiber during processing can inhibit gluten digestion. The results from the digestibility and digestion peptide mapping of the gluten and dietary fiber complex (G-DF) at different conditions showed that when the G-DF was heated at 100 degrees C, the digestibility of gluten was lower, and less low-molecular weight peptides were produced. The digestion performance variation was related to gluten hydration degree, spatial structure changes and steric hindrance of dietary fiber.