Gluten and gluten-free biscuits with functional components: physicochemical, nutritional and antioxidant properties

This study aims to determine the effect of different compounds on the nutritional, antioxidant, microstructural, and color characteristics of biscuits classified as gluten and gluten-free. Namely, biscuits are enriched with dietary fibers, acacia fibers, spent coffee grounds, and anthocyanins. The addition of these functional components to biscuit matrix affected the physical properties of the biscuits; namely, the spread factor value of all biscuits ranged from 2.98 to 7.88, the content of total polyphenols increased, the highest polyphenol content was obtained in the gluten-free biscuits with added coffee grounds (77.98 mg), while in the biscuits with wheat flour has in the range of 44.62–128.63 mg. All gluten- free biscuits can be labeled as products with "rich in fiber" (6.32–7.68 g/100 g) and with a higher antioxidant content compared to biscuits without added ingredients. The total number of microorganisms in the tested cookies is below acceptable limits. The findings of this study show that the inclusion of raw nutritional components in the recipe of traditional gluten and gluten-free biscuits leads to an improvement in the nutritional value and other quality characteristics of the fortified food products.