Wheat gluten: from a agro-industrial co-product to bio-based, disposable, high-performance materials

The unique properties of the wheat grain reside primarily in the gluten-forming storage proteins of its endosperm. Wheat flour can form dough that exhibits rheological properties required for the wider diversity of well-known food products such as bread, pasta and pastry. From a technological point of view, the gluten proteins are extremely important since they have unique visco-elastic properties upon hydration. As a co-product of the wheat starch industry, gluten is available in large amounts at relatively low cost. This, together with its intrinsic properties, makes gluten an ideal candidate for conversion into renewable, bio-based, disposable, high-performance materials. However, in terms of thermo-mechanical properties, current gluten materials are outperformed by the available synthetic polymer materials, commodity plastics included. The current status of wheat gluten based materials is reviewed.

Publication year:2011