Celiac disease (CD) is an immune-mediated gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Currently, it affects around 1% of world population, but it is constantly growing. Celiac patients have to follow a strict gluten-free (GF) diet. Beer is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide, but it is not safe for people with CD. It has a gluten content usually above the safe threshold (20 ppm), determined by the official method for hydrolyzed foods (R5-competitive-ELISA). The demand on the market for GF beers is increasingly growing. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of different strategies to produce GF beer, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of each approach and taking into account technological and sensory issues. GF cereals or pseudocereals have poor brewing attitudes (if used as main raw material) and give the beer unusual flavour. Instead, enzymatic treatments allow traditional brewing process followed by gluten content reduction. A survey on 185 GF-producing breweries (both industrial and craft) from all over the world have been considered to assess which approach is most used. Beers brewed with GF cereals and pseudocereals (used in well-balanced proportions) are more common than gluten-removed (GR) beers, obtained by enzymatic treatment.

Hypercholesterolemia, which is an increase in total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) serum cholesterol, is an important risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases. Lifestyle modifications underpin any action plan for reducing serum cholesterol. Phytosterols are natural compounds belonging to the triterpenes family. Thanks to their structural analogy with cholesterol, phytosterols have the ability to reduce serum LDL-cholesterol levels. Phytosterols are used to enrich or fortify a broad spectrum of food products. Like unsaturated fatty acids and cholesterol, phytosterols are easily oxidized. Microencapsulation could be a useful tool to overcome this and other drawbacks linked to the use of phytosterols in food fortification. In this review, in addition to explaining the phytosterols’ mechanisms of action, a focus on the use of free and encapsulated phytosterols for the formulation of functional foods, taking also into account both technological and legislative issues, is given.