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Celiac disease (CD) is an immune-mediated gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Currently, it affects around 1% of world population, but it is constantly growing. Celiac patients have to follow a strict gluten-free (GF) diet. Beer is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide, but it is not safe for people with CD. It has a gluten content usually above the safe threshold (20 ppm), determined by the official method for hydrolyzed foods (R5-competitive-ELISA). The demand on the market for GF beers is increasingly growing. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of different strategies to produce GF beer, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of each approach and taking into account technological and sensory issues. GF cereals or pseudocereals have poor brewing attitudes (if used as main raw material) and give the beer unusual flavour. Instead, enzymatic treatments allow traditional brewing process followed by gluten content reduction. A survey on 185 GF-producing breweries (both industrial and craft) from all over the world have been considered to assess which approach is most used. Beers brewed with GF cereals and pseudocereals (used in well-balanced proportions) are more common than gluten-removed (GR) beers, obtained by enzymatic treatment.

Most of gluten free (GF) bakery products available on the market are made by a restricted number of grains. Flours and starches from rice and maize are mainly used. For this reason, people affected by celiac disease frequently suffer of nutritional deficiencies and have high intake of some nutrients. The use of a wider range of GF flours, rich in nutrients and phytochemicals, may improve the nutritional quality of GF products.This study aimed at the characterization of twelve GF flours obtained from cereals, pseudocereals and legumes for what concerns their functional properties, starch composition, phenolic and flavonoid content, and their effect on glycemic index (GI), that was estimated in vitro. In particular, starch composition had an influence on predicted glycemic index (pGI). pGI and damaged starch were positively related, whereas flavonoid, amylose and resistant starch (RS) contents were negatively related to pGI. In general, for all the parameters considered, cereals, except for rice flour, showed similar behavior, so as legumes. On the contrary, pseudocereals presented quite different characteristics between each other, due to their different botanical origin. The knowledge of starch composition, its relationship with GI, and functional properties could contribute to the selection of flours for healthier GF bakery products. the Determination of Antioxidant Capacity and Polyphenols in Cereal Food Components." Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 30(2): 94-101.

Hypercholesterolemia, which is an increase in total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) serum cholesterol, is an important risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases. Lifestyle modifications underpin any action plan for reducing serum cholesterol. Phytosterols are natural compounds belonging to the triterpenes family. Thanks to their structural analogy with cholesterol, phytosterols have the ability to reduce serum LDL-cholesterol levels. Phytosterols are used to enrich or fortify a broad spectrum of food products. Like unsaturated fatty acids and cholesterol, phytosterols are easily oxidized. Microencapsulation could be a useful tool to overcome this and other drawbacks linked to the use of phytosterols in food fortification. In this review, in addition to explaining the phytosterols' mechanisms of action, a focus on the use of free and encapsulated phytosterols for the formulation of functional foods, taking also into account both technological and legislative issues, is given.

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