Gluten-free rice & bean biscuit: characterization of a new food product

As the market does not offer a portable and long-lasting product combining rice and beans in a single preparation, this study intends to characterize a new and alternative gluten-free biscuit, based on the most classic Brazilian staple food: rice and beans. For that, six formulations were designed to test using those ingredients as raw flours and cooked grains. One of them, formulated with wheat flour served as control. After baking, biscuits were submitted to instrumental, physicochemical, and consumer's sensory tests. Tests showed that when cooked beans substituted dried beans flour, the notes of acceptance increased and nutritional profile improved significantly (p < 0.05), which demonstrated to be an innovative use to bakery ingredients. One of the formulations even superseded the acceptance of the control formulation. At least two of the rice and beans formulations presented physicochemical profiles close to the control, with good protein (±10 g/100g) and mineral (±5 g/100g) contents, also being a food source of fibers (±8.2 g/100g), meaning they can bring potential benefits to people on gluten-restricted diets and celiac consumers, as well as to Brazilians who could consume rice and beans, now in a new versatile way.