THE starch-making by-product, gluten, whose stickiness limits its use, can be made as safer substitute for vetsin, or monosodium glutamate, and other hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) products which mothers use to add flavor to the food they cook, a paper showed.

Gluten is the protein from grains.

The gluten from wheat usually goes to waste. Sometimes it ends up as crude glue or paste.

Marissa Romero, of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), however, found out that if modified with enzymes, wheat gluten could be a safer alternative to meat. The usual protein modification in HVP products—meat bouillon, sautéing powder, instant-noodle flavoring mixes, etc.—involves using strong acids and high temperature, which induce the formation of chloropropanols, a suspected carcinogenic agent.

Romero, whose thesis “Value-Adding of Starch Processing By-Product Through Safe and Efficient Enzymatic Approach” in her PhD in food science in Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in the US in May 2007, said: “Enzyme use in treating the wheat gluten from starch prevents the formation of carcinogenic compound and high level of salt as what happens in the traditional HVP processing using acid.”

Her study emerged also as “Best Paper” during the Federation of Crop Science Societies of the Philippines (FCSSP) conference in Tagaytay City in June.

Romero explained that mere dipping the gluten in water or aqueous solution would not dissolve it, thus limiting its use. But when modified and becomes more soluble it could also serve as foaming and emulsifying agent.

Because wheat gluten has an array of amino-acid composition (one-third consists of glutamine, proline, leucine, argine, valine, serine and isoleucine), the author found converting it into food seasoning by means of hydrolysis and deamination, making it more interesting and useful.

Hydrolysis is used by washing the flour thoroughly with water until the gluten comes out and the starch removed.

“To give the gluten added value, it should be treated with enzyme to alter the protein structure,” she said.

Giving a more candid explanation of protein in wheat gluten, she said: “Protein is a word composed of letters that is the amino acids.”

Protein contains amino acids, which consist of peptides. By means of hydrolysis, the protein is cut into peptides and amino acids. The process is called enzymatic hydrolysis. 

The first step involves the screening of different proteases—or enzymes which are part of protein metabolism such as breaking it down into amino acids or building it up into amino acids—for hydrolysis efficiency. Nine proteases with an average level of pH, or acidity, and average temperature of 50 °Celcius were evaluated.

Romero used two proteases with the highest degree of hydrolysis—the Umamizyme and Flavourzyme—for the next step: The deamination, the splitting off of the amino radical from proteins.

Deamination, or deamidation, said Romero, is the taking off of part of glutamine and have ammonia removed from the protein. Previous studies, which Romero used as references in her paper, said deamidation “enhances the functional properties” and “causes structural changes” in food proteins. Deamidated proteins are ideal “surface-active agents, ingredients essential in the food industry.”

The hydrolyzed gluten was made source of substrates for Maillard reaction, which induces impact on the flavor and color in food. It involves condensation of carbonyl and free amino groups to form flavor and color compounds.

An Internet search showed that Maillard reaction was first discovered by French food chemist Louis Camille Maillard. It is the reaction between carbohydrates (sugar) and proteins, and is responsible for changes in color, flavor and nutritive value in food. It is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring heat. Like caramelization, it is a form of nonenzymatic browning.

This reaction is the basis of the flavoring industry, since the type of amino acid determines the resulting flavor.

Romero investigated the potential Maillard reaction from her hydrolyzed wheat gluten.

“While Maillard reaction is beneficial to food for perking up flavor and color, it is harmful to humans. It diminishes protein in human muscles. It is the protein that covers the eyes, which is more popularly known as cataract,” she said.

Romero concluded that “the use of Umamizyme or Flavourzyme in hydrolyzing gluten is a better and safer alternative to strong acids in the production of hydrolyzed vegetable protein, a very important savory ingredient in the food industry.”

She hoped, if given a chance by PhilRice, she would experiment on making HVP, or flavor enhancing powder, from a major rice by-product: rice bran, or darak, which is used to feed hogs.

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Gluten is good substitute for ‘vetsin’

THE starch-making by-product, gluten, whose stickiness limits its use, can be made as safer substitute for vetsin, or monosodium glutamate, and other hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) products which mothers use to add flavor to the food they cook, a paper showed.

After their prayers were heard on high because of a prolonged dry spell, farmers now face a new challenge—flooded fields—that threaten their very own lifeline.