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Thickening sauces, soups, gravies and ready meals without wheat flour.
Rice flour can be used to make sauces. When cooked it produces a thick, neutral-tasting mass that pairs well with a variety of food components — meat, mushrooms, spices and others.
A sauce is a system a technologist judges not in the vessel but a week later in the jar. The viscosity built during cooking is only half the result: the mass is then cooled, filled, stored and — in ready meals — frozen and thawed. Starch behaves differently at each of those stages, which is why "thickener" is not one property of a raw material but at least three: how fast viscosity develops on heating, how it changes after cooling, and whether the structure holds across the shelf life.
Kaskad LLC has been producing gluten-free flour since 2001 and ships it in industrial batches — sacks of 30 and 50 kg, minimum order one sack. This page is written for the technologist selecting a thickener for sauces, ketchups, dressings, gravies, ready meals and dry sauce mixes, and obliged to evidence the normative basis of that ingredient at incoming inspection. Below: the products in our range for this industry, the role of each, our four processing lines, particle size in microns, certificates with numbers, and entry terms. There are no prices here — they are contractual.
Hot process: viscosity development on heating. The classic scheme — flour goes into a mass that is heated, the starch gelatinises and viscosity builds. This is the simplest and most predictable mode; ordinary flour from the standard line works here, and the choice of product is driven by the flavour profile and colour of the finished sauce.
Cold process: thickening without heat. Emulsified dressings, cold-process sauces, fillings added after the main heating step — systems where native starch simply never gets its chance. Heat-treated flour is what is needed here: it swells at a lower temperature, so viscosity develops without cooking the mass.
After cooling: how the structure behaves across shelf life. A cooled starch gel firms up over time, so the viscosity of a sauce after a week in storage can differ from the figure measured coming off the line. This is a property of starch as such, not a defect of the raw material; it is accounted for by measuring viscosity after holding a sample under conditions close to real storage, rather than immediately.
There is one more motive, purely documentary. Flour is declared in the ingredient list under its own name, carries no E number and is not a food additive. In sauces and dressings, where the consumer reads the ingredient list on the label, that is often the whole reason for moving from modified starch to flour. Wheat flour would bring a gluten declaration with it; ours does not. Check the final wording against the requirements of your sales market.
There are two tasks in sauce technology that native flour handles poorly, and it is more honest to say so on the page than in an email after a failed trial cook.
Acidic systems. Ketchups, tomato and vinegar-based sauces work at low pH. Under prolonged heating in an acidic medium with mechanical shear, starch loses part of its viscosity — a property of native starch, not a characteristic of any particular supplier. We do not claim acid stability we cannot evidence with a document. The practical routes are to add the flour after the main heating step, to shorten the time under heat and shear, or to pair the flour with another thickener; which one applies is established by a trial cook on your equipment.
Freeze–thaw cycles. In ready meals and frozen sauces a starch gel tends to release liquid over repeated cycles. This too is a general property of native starches. We do not claim freeze–thaw stability — if the product is frozen, that is verified on samples before series production rather than taken on trust.
This narrows the set of tasks in which our raw material works without caveats — deliberately. A technologist given an honest limit before testing comes back; one who discovers it from a failed cook does not.
Native starch binds the bulk of its water only after gelatinisation, meaning the mass has to be heated. Heat-treated flour has travelled part of that road in advance: the starch granules have been altered by prior heating, so they swell at a lower temperature and do it faster. For the sauce group that gives:
The degree of change depends on the treatment regime and the base grain, so the specific parameters are fixed in the batch specification rather than declared here as universal.
The terminological fork. TXT is a processing mode available for several products in the range — rice, corn, buckwheat, oat, chickpea and red lentil flour. Heat-treated flour is a separate catalogue product whose base grain is chosen by the customer; composition and nutritional data follow from it and are stated in the batch specification. For incoming inspection the two are not synonyms.
Table: Kaskad LLC processing lines
| Line | What it defines | Key parameters |
|---|---|---|
| STD (Standard) | controlled milling, consistent particle size batch after batch | moisture up to 15% |
| TXT (Texture) | heat treatment — water binding and texture | heat treatment: yes; moisture to specification |
| SUP (Super / Super+) | enhanced microbiological limits | specification agreed with the customer |
| SPC (Special) | parameters to a technical brief | milling, moisture, microbiology, pack format — from a trial batch |
Table: Kaskad LLC gluten-free raw materials for dressings and sauces
| Product | Lines available | Role in a sauce formulation | Shelf life |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice flour | STD, TXT, SUP | Base thickener: 81.0 g carbohydrate per 100 g, neutral taste, leaves the sauce colour unchanged | 18 months |
| Heat-treated flour | TXT, SPC | Cold thickening and dry sauce mixes; base grain agreed with you | to specification |
| Chickpea flour | STD, TXT | Emulsified sauces and dressings; 20.6 g protein; adds a flavour note of its own | 18 months |
The products above are the industry’s core list in our catalogue. The related products below are used in soups and sauces with a flavour profile of their own.
Table: Related products
| Product | Lines available | Role in a sauce formulation | Shelf life |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown rice flour | STD, SUP | Soups and sauces with a darker colour and denser structure | 18 months |
| Buckwheat flour | STD, TXT | Thickening sauces with a pronounced flavour and colour; 13.6 g protein | 18 months |
| Green buckwheat flour | STD, SUP | Thickening sauces and soups; a lighter tone than standard buckwheat | 18 months |
Why rice flour is the default choice. It carries the highest starch base in the range (81.0 g carbohydrate per 100 g), has no flavour of its own and is white. In a sauce where the flavour is set by tomato, spices, or a dairy or fat component, the thickener must contribute nothing — and rice flour does not break that rule.
On chickpea, with a caveat. Chickpea flour carries 20.6 g protein per 100 g and is used in emulsified dressings, but it is not neutral in flavour: in a light sauce with a delicate profile the chickpea note reads. That is a characteristic rather than a defect, and it belongs in the formulation decision: in eastern-style and vegetable sauces it works for the product, in vanilla and cream ones against it.
On the buckwheat products. Buckwheat and green buckwheat carry the highest protein on the list after the pulses (13.6 and 12.6 g) and a pronounced flavour. The difference between them is colour and intensity: green buckwheat is lighter and softer in profile.
Table: Nutritional data per 100 g (from the product labelling)
| Product | Protein, g | Fat, g | of which saturates, g | Carbohydrate, g | of which sugars, g | Energy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chickpea flour | 20.6 | 6.2 | 0.7 | 53.2 | 10.8 | 1490 kJ / 356 kcal |
| Buckwheat flour | 13.6 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 71.9 | 1.2 | 1477 kJ / 353 kcal |
| Green buckwheat flour | 12.6 | 3.3 | 0.68 | 62.0 | 2.6 | 1372 kJ / 328 kcal |
| Brown rice flour | 7.9 | 2.9 | 0.54 | 76.5 | 0.0 | 1548 kJ / 370 kcal |
| Rice flour | 6.0 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 81.0 | 0.1 | 1531 kJ / 366 kcal |
Average nutritional values are given. Depending on the origin of the produce, actual values may differ.
The note is quoted verbatim from the product labelling and applies to every row. Heat-treated flour is deliberately absent: its composition depends on the base grain and is stated in the batch specification.
Two rows repay a careful reading when recalculating a sauce label. Chickpea carries 10.8 g sugars per 100 g — the highest in the list (green buckwheat follows at 2.6 g); in formulations with controlled sugar and in systems where surface colour on heating matters, that is accounted for in advance. The highest starch base is rice flour at 81.0 g, so per unit of mass added it delivers the most thickening material; the pulse products thicken less at the same inclusion level but bring protein.
In a sauce system, milling solves two practical problems at once: lump formation when the flour goes into the liquid, and a floury mouthfeel in the finished product. So we give milling as a figure rather than the words "fine" and "uniform".
Table: Particle size of Kaskad LLC gluten-free flour
| Milling parameter | Limit |
|---|---|
| Passing a 160 µm sieve | not less than 60.0% |
| Retained on a 250 µm sieve | not more than 2.0% |
The first parameter sets the fine fraction: at least 60% of the mass passes a 160 µm sieve, so the flour wets out faster and more evenly and the risk of lumps on addition drops. The second caps the coarse fraction: no more than 2% is retained on a 250 µm sieve — that is the fraction which hydrates slowly and leaves a floury mouthfeel in the finished sauce. Together these figures mean the viscosity of the finished product does not drift from delivery to delivery and the formulation does not need re-tuning for every new batch.
Milling is done to the customer's brief. If your system needs a finer distribution — for a dry sauce mix with rapid reconstitution, or for a particular mixer type — that is agreed as a technical brief in the SPC line. It starts with a trial batch and testing on your own equipment; series supply follows confirmation of the results.
We do not publish dosage. The proportion of flour depends on the target viscosity, total solids, pH, the temperature scheme and the homogenisation regime. The working level is established by a trial cook; our staff technologist takes part in selecting the material and the processing parameters.
AOECS — the Crossed Grain trademark. Licence certificate No. UA0012026, licence number UA-001, valid to 06.02.2027. In practice: gluten content under 20 ppm, controlled as a system on the production site, with annual re-licensing. Kaskad LLC was the first company in Ukraine to obtain this right.
ISO 22000:2018. Certificate No. ODS-397/QS, certification body ICEC, valid to 19.09.2028. Scope, document numbers and limits — quality and certification.
Kosher. Certificate from The Jewish Community of Dnipro, Kosher Department, dated 17.02.2026.
The grain we use is Ukrainian. We import only what is not grown or produced in Ukraine: raisins, cranberries, sesame and E-group food additives.
Packaging. Industrial packaging is sacks of 30 and 50 kg. Non-standard formats are agreed as a technical brief, including for private label production.
Batch documents. A batch is accompanied by a quality passport or a manufacturer's declaration. A certificate of analysis (COA) is produced where required, by separate agreement.
Storage conditions. Verbatim from the document: store in dry, well-ventilated premises free from grain storage pests.
Table: Entry terms for a new customer
| Stage | Terms |
|---|---|
| Validation samples | free of charge, up to 5 kg |
| Sample lead time | 5 days |
| Minimum order | one sack (30 or 50 kg) |
Five kilograms is enough for a full incoming-inspection cycle and a series of trial cooks at different inclusion levels. There is no minimum-tonnage barrier between a free sample and a series contract.
Looking for flour for your household rather than raw material for production?
Kaskad LLC ships raw materials in industrial batches in 30 and 50 kg sacks and does not handle retail orders. Products under the Ms.Tally brand in 0.2–1 kg packs are available in our Ms.Tally retail shop. Same manufacturer, same production site — a different supply format.
The default choice is rice: the highest starch base in the range (81.0 g carbohydrate per 100 g), a neutral taste and a white colour. For cold processes and dry sauce mixes, heat-treated flour from the TXT line. In sauces with a flavour profile of their own, chickpea, buckwheat and brown rice flour are used.
Yes, but not by straight substitution: viscosity per unit of mass, the speed at which it develops and the behaviour after cooling all differ. The inclusion level is established by a trial cook on your equipment, with our staff technologist taking part.
We do not claim acid stability: under prolonged heating in an acidic medium with shear, native starch loses part of its viscosity — a general property of native starch. The practical routes are to add the flour after the main heating step, shorten the time under heat and shear, or combine it with another thickener. It is verified by a trial cook.
We do not claim freeze–thaw stability: a native starch gel tends to release liquid over repeated cycles. If the product is frozen, that is verified on samples before series production.
Thickening without cooking — for emulsified dressings, cold sauces and fillings added after heating — and faster reconstitution in dry sauces and soups. The moisture of the TXT line goes to specification.
Both, and a specification has to keep them apart. TXT is a mode available for rice, corn, buckwheat, oat, chickpea and red lentil flour. "Heat-treated flour" is a separate catalogue product whose base grain is chosen by the customer, with composition and shelf life stated in the batch specification.
That depends on two things: milling and the processing mode. The coarse fraction that fails to hydrate is the source of flouriness — and it is capped here: no more than 2.0% retained on a 250 µm sieve. Heat-treated flour additionally gives a weaker raw note in products that are never boiled.
No. Flour is an ingredient, not a food additive: it carries no E number and is declared in the finished product under its own name. In the sauce category, where the consumer reads the ingredient list, that is often the whole reason for moving away from modified starch.
Below 20 ppm — the Crossed Grain threshold.
Sacks of 30 and 50 kg, minimum order one sack. Samples are supplied free of charge, up to 5 kg, within 5 days. Kaskad LLC does not supply retail packs: 0.2–1 kg packs are produced under the Ms.Tally brand on a separate site, mstally.ua.
Phone: +38 099 977 74 43, +38 050 595 75 62 · Email: office@tovkaskad.com · Personal data
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