General Mills Makes Gluten-Free Pasta with Cold Extrusion

An application recently filed by General Mills to secure an international patent reveals the company’s approach to producing low-gluten and gluten-free pasta dough. As consumer demand for gluten-free or reduced-gluten products grows, major food companies are looking at ways to shift product formulations and offerings.

General Mills said its invention is intended to offer a gluten-free or reduced-gluten pasta that can be made commercially and mitigates some issues with replacing gluten in products such as a lack of texture, water-binding ability, structure and stretch.

The new pasta process “is likely to have better quality and texture than the gluten-free or gluten-reduced pasta known in the prior art, and the pasta is less likely to be susceptible to the tearing or cracking that has been found in the prior art,” the company’s application said.

The company uses a mix of xanthan gum or guar gum and low-gluten or gluten-free flour that is processed through cold extrusion.

In addition to the pasta production process outlined in the patent application, General Mills also included a method of producing filled gluten-free or low-gluten pasta.

General Mills’ application also discussed the inclusion of other starches like tapioca and potato starch to improve the dough.

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To view the technical details of the company’s patent, click here.