Shortening is defined as crystalline lipids and oils from vegetable and/or animal origin with a composition of 100 g/100 g lipid approximately. Shortening plasticizes and lubricates dough, increases dough rise, oven spring and loaf volume, as well as improves crumb structure and shelf-life of wheat bread . Shortening is usually incorporated in gluten-free bread to improve its quality . In addition, shortening showed a crumb softening effect in sorghum gluten-free bread . Nevertheless, shortening increases the caloric intake and may imbalance the nutritional profile
of gluten-free bread due to the increase of fat content with a high proportion of saturated fatty acids.