Flatbreads: ancient products with a future life

After a description of the production of flatbreads, with a particular focus on the baking methods, this article reviews the food technology studies on flatbreads over the last ten years. Due to its widespread geographical distribution and high frequency of consumption, flatbread has been considered a suitable carrier for increasing the dietary intake of several microelements and vitamins. Furthermore, the addition of several functional ingredients to flatbread formulation has been widely experimented, mostly of vegetable origin (legume flours and protein isolates, fruit by-products, fenugreek seeds, white mulberry extract, tomato pomace), but also of animal origin, such as whey-based ingredients. Other important research topics regarding flatbreads include quality improvement and shelf life extension, as well as gluten-free formulations.