With the recent heightened awareness of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease has come a rise in gluten-free diets and products. A new partnership between Vancouver Community College (VCC) and BCIT aims to develop a baking technique that will allow gluten-sensitive bread lovers to have their bread and eat it too.
VCC baking and pastry arts have been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to conduct a two-year applied research project with BCIT in naturally leavened baking with a goal to reducing the digestive sensitivities of sourdough breads. The grant is part of the NSERC College and Community Innovation Program and was announced at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario on April 8.
Together with BCIT’s Natural Health and Food Products Research Group (NRG) and Rogers Foods, VCC will work to develop a methodology and guidelines to produce high quality sourdough breads, the characteristics of which naturally reduce gluten content. VCC students and faculty will devise the formulas and recipes and BCIT’s NRG will evaluate the bread qualities.
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