Flour − Cooked or uncooked?: A Healthy Food Component

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Flours are highly nutritious food sources and are generated from a range of crops − especially cereals. General wisdom is that flours should be cooked before consumption to make the components more digestible, have an enhanced sensory profile and destroy microorganisms and toxins. This brief review (based on reviewing databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, Wiley Online Library, etc.) challenges this point of view and explores the potential detriment associated with cooking flour on the nutritional characteristics. Examples relevant to different nutritional classes are presented.
During processing, flour particles are converted to forms where the starch becomes amorphous and digestible. Proteins and lipids disperse and create new structures – such as within bread where the gluten proteins form matrices containing starch. Chemical reactions during processing cause the destruction of some nutrients such amino acids and vitamins. Sensory properties are enhanced whilst the microbiological load is decreased.