Summer 2001 Issue — Carboply
A new dimension in wheat based ingredients

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Until today, wheat is primary used as a raw material source for the production of starch and starch related products, such as glucose syrups and malto dextrin. A second, very well known ingredient is the "wheat protein" or gluten, which is used in bakery applications. Although the main purpose remains starch productions, more and more knowledge is generated about the other constituents from wheat flour. This also is a result of a higher awareness of the nutritional values from natural products by consumers.

Looking closer to the individual proteins, fats and carbohydrates in wheat, we realized that starch and gluten is only a part of its composition. The other ingredients were until now not commercially available. Three years ago the CARBOPLY project was started, to adapt the wheat process to make the "other" proteins, fats and carbohydrates available in a variety of applications.

CARBOPLY Production (Fig 1)

Instead of the conventional production of wheat flour into two major streams (starch and gluten), CARBOPLY BV developed a three streams production process (patented). The first two streams are very similar to the known production methods. The third stream however is used as a starting material for CARBOPLY. Partial hydrolyses of the carbohydrates, followed by spray drying, will provide CARBOPLY powder.

Composition (Fig 2)

Proteins

Wheat flour consists of the following proteins: gliadin (32%), glutenin (46%), albumin (15%) and globulin (7%) (Fig 3). The gliadin and glutenin fractions are the major proteins in "gluten".

Proteins (Fig 3)

Globulin and albumin are the proteins present in CARBOPLY and count for 18% of the powder. This albumin and globulin contain, as in gluten, high amounts of amino acid glutamine (22 g/100g protein) and are considered a conditionally essential amino acid (Lacey and Wilmore, Nutritional reviews, vol. 48, 8, 1990, pages 297-309).

Lipids

Although a classical method for fat determination, (Weibull), results in 5.5% fat, CARBOPLY most likely contains, beside the apolar fraction, also around the same amounts of polar lipids (Wheat chemistry and technology, Y. Pomeranz, 1978, pages 393-451). Those polar lipids are mainly glycolipids and phospholipids (lecithin (PC) and cephaline (PE)).

Lipids (Fig 4)

Carbohydrates

Three major carbohydrate fractions are present in CARBOPLY: starch, pentosanes and (hemi-) cellulose. All three are partially hydrolyzed, tailored to the needs of the final application and to the processing capability. No native starch is present. The distribution of the starch fraction is 10% DP1 (glucose), 40% DP2 (maltose), 10% DP3 (maltotriose) and 40% oligosacchariden. Furthermore no monomers from the pentosanes (xylose and arabinose) or (hemi-) celluloses are present.

Carbohydrates (Fig 5)

Applications

Nutritional

All three major parts of CARBOPLY do contain potential ingredients, which could be used in nutritional applications.

• Proteins are the soluble fraction of wheat flour (globulins and albumine) and contain over 20% glutamine amino acid.
• The concentrated polar lipids are partially related to lecithin and cephaline. Also these ingredients are known in health foods.
• Oligosacchariden in probiotic formulas are well known. CARBOPLY as mentioned above contains high levels of oligosacchariden and could therefore be very interesting as ingredient in such formulas.

Organoleptic properties

Processing conditions and the wheat source provide CARBOPLY a malted taste. Therefore, in applications were taste is a major item, CARBOPLY can be incorporated. Furthermore the sweet taste of CARBOPLY (maltose and glucose) does also enhance the organoleptic properties in final products.

Bakery

The polar lipids (monoglycerides, lecithin, etc.) can play a role in bread applications to prevent, for example, staling. Another functionality of CARBOPLY is the ability to form Maillard reactions at elevated temperatures. In a dosage of 2% based on flour, the final bread crust will become more yellow-brown compared to recipes without addition of CARBOPLY.

CARBOPLY is an innovative new functional product and is the start of a new dimension in wheat-derived ingredients. The variety of functionalities makes CARBOPLY an opportunity in different application areas.

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