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I know nothing more about this, but thought others would be as
interested as I was.  Though somehow I suspect ... only in my dreams.


http://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=49982

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Breaking News on Food & Beverage Development

Added lactobacilli in sourdough bread design to beat gluten intolerance

18/02/2004

Sourdough bread containing select bacteria may be tolerated by
patients with a rare digestive disease that causes gluten
intolerance, say Italian and Irish researchers. The new research
could provide new opportunities for food producers aiming to capture
market share in the health food domain.

Coeliac Sprue (CS), one of the most common food intolerances in
western culture, is a digestive disease that damages the small
intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. A
gluten-free diet has been the only treatment option available to
patients up to this point.

Writing in the February issue of the Applied and Environmental
Microbiology , researchers at the Institute of Sciences of Food
Production in Bari, Italy, the European Laboratory for Food Induced
Disease in Naples and the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences
at the University College Cork in Ireland said that they set out to
produce a sourdough, made from a mixture of wheat (30 per cent) and
non-toxic oat, millet, and buckwheat flours started with
lactobacilli, that would be tolerated by CS people.

"The selected sourdough lactobacilli had specialised peptidases
capable of hydrolysing Pro-rich peptides, including the 33-mer
peptide, the most potent inducer of gut-derived human T-cell lines in
CS patients," write the researchers.

Conclusions drawn from the small study on just 17 patients find "that
designing a bread biotechnology that uses selected lactobacilli,
nontoxic flours, and a long fermentation time could be a novel tool
for decreasing the level of gluten intolerance in humans", said the
study authors.

Gluten is widely used in the food industry  however approximately
coeliac disease currently affects one million European consumers .

Full findings for the study are published in the Applied and
Environmental Microbiology , February 2004, p. 1088-1096, Vol. 70,
No. 2.

Editor:
lindsey.partos foodnavigator.com

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