This study was aimed at combining the highest degradation of gluten during wheat flour fermentation
with good structural and sensory features of the related bread. As estimated by R5-ELISA, the degree of
degradation of immune reactive gluten was ca. 28%. Two-dimensional electrophoresis and RP-FPLC
analyses showed marked variations of the protein fractions compared to the untreated flour. The comparison
was also extended to in vitro effect of the peptic/tryptic-digests towards K562 and T84 cells. The
flour with the intermediate content of gluten (ICG) was used for bread making, and compared to whole
gluten (WG) bread. The chemical, structural and sensory features of the ICG bread approached those of
the bread made with WG flour. The protein digestibility of the ICG bread was higher than that from WG
flour. Also the nutritional quality, as estimated by different indexes, was the highest for ICG bread.