Flours and starches form the structure and volume of bread. A lower-volume bread is heavier and denser than a higher-volume bread. Flours and starches also play an important role in texture and taste quality.

In the non-gluten free supermarket breads, the top ingredient (listed by weight) is wheat flour which is a gluten containing grain and gives the ‘bread like’ structure we are accustomed to. Gluten free breads on the other hand contain various combinations of modified tapioca starch, rice flour, soy flour and maize starch. A combination here produces better texture and volume, rather than using any of these flours and starches would do on their own.

Maize starch improves volume, but can cause a dry or crumbly texture. Tapioca starch is good for texture but doesn’t produce the same volume as maize flour. The modified tapioca starch used in gluten free bread helps retain moisture and improve shelf life – a modification that is required because in its natural form, tapioca starch wouldn’t survive the baking process or frozen storage. Rice flour improves texture but not volume. Soy flour is found in both non-gluten free breads too, but only as a minor ingredient due to the sometimes unpopular flavour of soy that can influence the taste of bread.