Optimization of durum wheat bread from a selenium-rich cultivar fortified with bran

Effect of Milling on Nutritional Components in Common and Zinc-Biofortified Wheat

Biofortification is one of the most successful approaches to enhance the level of micronutrients in wheat. In the present study, wheats with zinc biofortification (foliar fertilization and breeding strategies) were milled into five components (whole flour, break flour, reduction flour, fine bran, and coarse bran) and their mineral content and nutritional components were evaluated. The results revealed that biofortification greatly increased the Zn concentration (by 30.58%-30.86%) and soluble Zn content (by 28.57%-42.86%) of whole flour after digestion. This improvement is mainly in break flour, reduction flour, and fine bran. Meanwhile, the contents of macronutrients including ash, lipids, and proteins and micronutrients containing iron, calcium, and vitamins (B₁, B₆, and B₉) increased after biofortification. In addition, there was a decline in the concentrations of vitamins B₂ and B₅. Although dietary fibers and starch are the major carbohydrates, total dietary fiber exhibited a declining trend in coarse bran, and starch exhibited a rising trend in break and reduction flour. There was a decrease in the molar ratio of phytates: zinc did not promote a significant improvement in zinc bioaccessibility. These results can be useful for generating wheat varieties rich in micronutrients as well as having better nutritional traits.

Potential functional bakery products as delivery systems for prebiotics and probiotics health enhancers

Several health benefits have been associated to probiotics and prebiotics, most of these are involved in the regulation of the host's gut microbiome. Their incorporation to diverse food products has been done to develop potential functional foods. In the case of bakery products, their incorporation has been seen to improve several technological parameters such as volume, specific volume, texture along with sensorial parameters such as flavor and aroma. Scientific literature in this topic has been divided in three main research branches: nutrition, physical quality and sensory analyzes, however, studies rarely cover all of them. Due to the harsh thermal stress during baking, sourdough technology along with microencapsulation of probiotics, has been studied as an alternative to enhance its nutritional values and increase cell viability, though in few occasions. The potential functional baked goods have maintained acceptable physical characteristics and sensorial acceptability, while in some cases an improvement is seen due to the effect of probiotics and prebiotics. The results obtained from several studies done, have shown the viability of developing functional bakery products by applying prebiotics or probiotics. This could be used as an encouragement for more research to be done in this topic.

Milling overrides cultivar, leavening agent and baking mode on chemical and rheological traits and sensory perception of durum wheat breads

Smell and aroma are important determinants of consumer acceptance, so gaining deeper insight into bread smell and aroma perception is a research goal. Sixteen combinations of four variables were investigated, to evaluate the contributions of bread chemical and rheological properties and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) towards sensory acceptability of breads: genotypes (landrace vs. modern); types of flour (wholemeal vs. semolina); leavening agents (brewing yeast vs. sourdough starter); and baking modes (gas-fired vs. wood-fired). Milling had the greatest impact over the other treatments for the rheological and chemical properties, including for VOCs, with great impact on the sensory traits of the flours and breads. The processing phases had great impact on smell and aroma, as defined through formation of alcohols, aldehydes, terpenes, and other compounds (e.g., ethylbenzene, 2-pentylfuran, methoxyphenyl oxime). Leavening agent had great impact on sensory perception, although breads from the sourdough starter were perceived as with lower taste and colour than the brewing yeast. Baking mode had no relevant role on sensory perception. These data strongly undermine the belief of a 'better product' that is frequently attributed to old genotypes versus modern cultivars, and indicate that the milling and the bread-making processes determine the quality of the end product.

Optimization of durum wheat bread enriched with bran

An attempt is made in this study to balance the nutritional and sensory quality of bread. In particular, the formulation of a functional durum wheat bread enriched with bran at high concentration has been developed. Organogel concentration and bran particle size have been used as process variables for bread optimization. Bran concentration was increased at value as high as 15%, thus increasing the nutritional content, even though the sensory quality decreased. Bread was scored barely acceptable at 15% bran concentration. Therefore, the organogel concentration and bran particle size have been optimized to enhance bread sensory quality. Results show that it is possible to prepare bread with a significant bran enrichment without compromising its acceptability by adding proper concentration of organogel and using bran in appropriate particles size.