Extracting Gluten from Flour

Rhythm Jethi & Andrew HaGrade 9

David Thompson Secondary School

Table of Contents

Item Page

Abstract 2

Purpose 3

Materials 3

Procedure 4

Review of Literature 5

Results 7

Conclusion 9

Acknowledgements 10

Bibliography 11

1

Abstract

Our experiment was to see which flours were best for people who want

or need to eat gluten-free, like people with celiac disease. Gluten is a sugar

that gives foods in the grains food group their texture. Celiac disease is an

autoimmune disease, and the only treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet.

We tested four flours: all purpose, pure white, whole wheat, and gluten-free.

We added water to flour to create a dough ball, kneaded it, then rinsed it

with water until the non-soluble gluten remained. We then weighed what was

left, and compared the weights. Our hypothesis was that the whole wheat

flour would have the most gluten, which the results proved to be true. The

pure white flour had the second most gluten, while the all-purpose flour had

the least gluten. The gluten-free flour had no gluten at all, which was

expected.

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Purpose

Question

Which flours would be good for someone trying to lead a low gluten lifestyle?

Hypothesis

If we separate soluble substances from gluten in flour, then whole wheat

flour will have the most gluten.

Materials

300 ml gluten-free flour (Control)

300 ml pure white flour (A)

300 ml all-purpose flour (B)

300 ml whole wheat flour (C)

700 ml water

oil to reduce stickiness

4 bowls

1 kitchen scale

1 sieve

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Procedure

1. Wash hands.

2. Into separate bowls, measure out 250 ml of each of your flours. Label

the flours according to the materials list. Make observations about the

flours.

3. Slowly add 175 ml water to the flour in bowl A. Let it sit, then add the

remaining 50 ml of flour to the mixture, and stir until incorporated. Put

oil on your hands and knead the mixture for 5 minutes until it forms a

soft, rubbery ball of dough.

4. Repeat with B through D and control.

5. Let the balls sit for ten minutes.

6. Take ball A out of its bowl. Place the bowl on your kitchen scale and

zero it, then place the ball back into the bowl and record the weight.

Repeat with all of your dough balls. Record your data.

7. Put the sieve in a sink. Hold dough ball A above the sieve. Run cold

water it. Cup your hands around the ball and squeeze gently to remove

the starch. Do this until your dough ball becomes a sticky, stringy ball.

Set aside.

8. Repeat for dough balls B through D, but not control. Compare your

stringy gluten. Which flour is stickiest? Which is lightest in colour?

Record your observations.

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9. Take ball A out of its bowl. Place the bowl on your kitchen scale and

zero it, then place the ball back into the bowl and record the weight.

Repeat with all of your dough balls. Record your data.

10. Since the control dough ball does not have any gluten, you can

subtract the weights of the stringy gluten from the gluten-free dough

ball to see which type of flour has the most gluten and which has the

least. Record your results.

11. Dispose of the gluten and wash your hands.

Review of literature

When we researched the main source of our project (gluten) we found

out that gluten is a substitute for meat or soy. People who do not eat meat

choose gluten as another option. Gluten turns your food chewy, stretchy, and

gives it texture.

We found another project that had been done on the same topic as

ours called on a website called Exploratorium. One of the differences

between our project and their project was that they only tested three flours

while we tested four. They did not use gluten free flour as their control. Also,

they did not use any oil on their dough to make it less sticky while we did. At

the end of our experiment, we measured our gluten according to its weight,

but they measured it according to the diameter of each ball of gluten. The

procedure was the same except after extracting the gluten, they had baked

their gluten balls in the oven for about 15–30 minutes at 450°F. They noticed

that these balls hardened up like they do when bread is baked. The

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experiment did not thoroughly discuss its procedure and it did not

completely list its materials, but they included many facts about gluten. On

their website, they did not include much other than their procedure and

some facts about gluten.

Comparing meat to gluten

Gluten is a protein found in certain grains. It gives elasticity to dough,

helps it rise, helps it keep its shape, and gives a chewy texture. Gluten is

also used in some cosmetics, hair products, and other beauty products.

Gluten is extracted from flour by kneading the flour, and washing away the

unneeded material. It was discovered when Buddhist monks in the 7th

century, who were vegetarians, were trying to find a substitute for meat.

They discovered that when they submerged dough in water, the starch

washed off and all that was left was a meat-like, textured, gummy mass:

gluten.

Elasticity

Elasticity is the state of being flexible and stretchy; having buoyancy.

Most solids like plastics and metals are elastic; they go through a process of

pressure applied to the material. There is still a limit to its reformation

depending on which material can return to its original shape after the force is

removed. Each object has its own elastic limit. Applying a force greater than

the elastic limit of the material causes it to bend permanently or crack. To

stretch an elastic material, the force is applied depending on the stiffness of

the material; this is called "elastic modulus". Hooke’s Law is a law that shows

the relationship between the forces applied to a

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spring and its elasticity.

Results

Masses of the Flours during the Experiment

Flour Initial mass (g) Mass after adding water (g)

Mass after rinsing (g)

Gluten-free (control)

177 346 All washed away

Pure white (A) 172 347 78

All purpose (B) 148 338 71

Whole wheat (C) 169 345 105

Initial weight After adding water After rinsing0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Masses of the Flours during the Experiment

Pure white (A) All purpose (B)Whole wheat (C) Gluten-free (control)

Mas

s (g)

7Percent Change in Mass

FlourChange between initial mass and

mass after adding water (%)

Change between mass after

adding water and mass after rinsing (%)

Change from initial mass to

mass after rinsing (%)

Gluten-free (control)

+195.480 -100.000 -100.000

Pure white (A) +201.744 -22.478 -45.349

All purpose (B) +228.378 -21.006 -47.973

Whole wheat (C) +204.142 -30.435 -62.130

Change between initial mass and mass after adding water

Change between mass after adding water and mass after rinsing

Change from initial mass to mass after rinsing

-150

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

250

Percent Change of Mass

Gluten-free (control) Pure white (A) All purpose (B) Whole wheat (C)

Chan

ge (%

)

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Conclusion

Our results support our hypothesis. We hypothesized that whole wheat

flour would have the most gluten in it. We predicted that the flour with the

second highest gluten content would be all purpose flour, and that pure

white flour would have the least gluten of the three. Our next prediction was

that gluten free flour would have no gluten. We were right about whole

wheat flour having the most gluten, but the flour with the second most

gluten was pure and the flour with the least gluten was all purpose. As

expected, the gluten free flour did not have any gluten.

Discussion

The results proved our hypothesis to be correct. The whole wheat flour

had the most gluten out of the four flours. We think this is because the

majority of carbohydrates in wheat are starches, which contain gluten. The

whole wheat flour had 105 g of gluten, 27 g more than the flour with the

second highest amount of gluten–the pure white. The whole wheat flour lost

the most mass in the experiment, but what was really interesting was that

the all-purpose flour gained the most mass after adding water. However, it

had the lowest gluten content. After rinsing the dough balls, the all-purpose

flour lost about the same amount of mass as the pure white flour. We

predicted that the pure white flour would have less gluten than all-purpose

flour, but this was proved incorrect. The pure white flour had 78 g of gluten,

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7 g more than the all-purpose with 71 g of gluten.

To refine our experiment, we could have done some things differently.

For example, we could have used something more accurate than a kitchen

scale to weigh the flours, like a digital balance. Another thing we could have

done differently was that we could have timed how long it took to rinse all

the soluble parts away. Then, we could have compared these times to see

how much each flour had. We could have also used more kinds of flour to get

a better idea of which flours are high or low in gluten.

An application of our results could be for the treatments for people

who have celiac disease. By determining which flours have the least gluten,

scientists and doctors could come up with comprehensive diets that fit the

needs of people with celiac disease. The same could be for people who do

not have celiac disease, but want to live gluten-free lifestyles to lose weight

or for other reasons.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our science teacher Mr. Danny Borges for

guiding us throughout the process. We would also like to thank Ms. Hitu Jethi

for helping us during the experiment. Lastly, we would like to thank Kevin

Dhir for giving us the idea for the experiment. Thank you.

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