Agriculture and Food 7–12 · Years 9–10

Washing out gluten from bread, plain and cake flours

Food Service and Catering

PracticalLow risk

The idea

Wheat flour proteins (glutenins and gliadins) join into an elastic gluten network when wetted and kneaded, and how much gluten a flour forms depends on its protein content.

Safety card

Low riskAn adult supervises

Hazards

coeliac disease or wheat allergy
flour dust
hot oven and trays

Controls

check allergy and coeliac records; affected learners do not handle wheat flour
add water gently to limit dust
oven mitts; teacher supervises the oven

Note

Food handling follows the FSANZ food safety standards (Standard 3.2.2) as explained on the FSANZ food temperature and thermometers page; check class allergy and anaphylaxis records before any food is prepared; the Food Technology Years 7–10 Syllabus reminds teachers that food allergies can cause anaphylaxis. Heat: complete a RiskAssess or school risk assessment for oven use.

What you need

bread (strong) flour, plain flour and cake flour (or the lowest-protein flour available, chosen from the panels), 50.0 g each, with their nutrition information panels
maize cornflour labelled as made from maize, 50.0 g (gluten-free control)
water, about 30 mL per dough
bowls, a fine sieve or muslin over a basin, balance reading to 0.1 g
baking tray and oven for drying the gluten balls

How to do it

Mix 50.0 g of each flour with about 30 mL of water into a firm dough and knead for 5 minutes.
Rest each dough in a bowl of cold water for 20 minutes.
Knead each dough under a gentle stream of cold water over the sieve until the water runs clear and only a rubbery ball remains.
Squeeze out loose water, weigh the wet gluten ball, and stretch a small piece thin to see whether it forms a translucent sheet.
Dry the balls on the tray in an oven set below 100 °C, so the water leaves without boiling and puffing the gluten, until two weighings agree; cool and weigh the dry gluten.
Express wet and dry gluten per 100 g of flour and rank the flours; compare the ranking with protein per 100 g on each panel.

What you should see

Bread flour gives the largest and most elastic gluten ball, plain flour a smaller one and cake flour the smallest and least stretchy. Maize cornflour washes away completely because maize does not contain wheat's gluten-forming proteins. Each dry ball weighs much less than it did wet, because the network holds water. The ranking of dry gluten per 100 g matches the ranking of protein per 100 g on the panels. The learner knows it worked when the maize control leaves no ball and the flours rank in protein order.

What changes

What you change: flour type
What you measure: wet and dry gluten mass per 100 g of flour (g), stretch test result
What you keep the same: 50.0 g of flour
water volume
kneading and resting times
washing until the water runs clear
drying method

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

Manufacturers add gluten to all flour.
Every kind of flour contains gluten.
Gluten is a carbohydrate.

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

Food Technology Years 7–10 Syllabus (2019)FT5-3 FT5-4 FT5-10
Food Technology 7–10 Syllabus (2025), new syllabus, implementation from 2028FT5-USE-01
Australian Curriculum v9AC9TDE10K05

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

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