Gluten-free bread crusts are known for their crumbly texture, light colour, poor nutritional quality and weak aroma. The objective of this research was to improve crust quality of gluten-free breads by the addition of rice, pea, egg white and whey proteins to the bread formulation in two levels (5% and 10%). Moisture, water activity, thickness, microstructure, texture, colour and volatile compounds were measured. A 99% negative significant correlation between spatial frequency of structural ruptures and crust moisture content was found. Results from texture analysis indicated that animal and 10% pea protein crusts were less crispy than control. Moreover, crust microstructure of animal protein bread was very different from control and vegetal protein crusts. Animal and vegetal protein crusts showed darker colour than control and the darkest was obtained from whey protein inclusion. With respect to the volatile profiles, rice protein crusts had the highest content of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline while whey protein crusts had high level of pyrazines, which was in concordance with their dark colour. However, whey protein and, above all, rice protein also increased the content of volatile compounds from lipids oxidation. Thus, the suitable proportion between rice and whey protein should be found to achieve the most pleasant aroma.
