Wheat bread enriched with organic calcium salts and inulin. A bread quality study

Effect of Freezing Wheat Dough Enriched with Calcium Salts with/without Inulin on Bread Quality

Bread is a popular food that is widely consumed worldwide but has a short shelf life. Besides that, when incorporating prebiotics and calcium, aging mechanisms accelerate, further shortening the shelf-life. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of freezing storage on the rheological (loss tangent, tan δ) and thermal (glass transition temperature, Tg) properties of unfrozen dough, the fermentation times (tf), and the baking quality of wheat bread fortified with calcium and inulin. Formulations studied included wheat flour (control-C), flour with 1800 ppm Ca (calcium carbonate-CA, calcium citrate-CI or calcium lactate-LA), and flour with 2400 ppm Ca and 12% inulin (calcium carbonate-CA-In, calcium citrate-CI-In or calcium lactate-LA-In). Doughs were stored at −18 °C for 1, 7, 30 and 60 days. After storage, the rheological (oscillatory rheometry and texture profile analysis) and thermomechanical properties of the thawed doughs were measured. The quality parameters of breads determined consisted of specific volume (Vs), color, moisture, firmness, elasticity, and alveoli size characterization. Dough freezing neither changed viscoelasticity (tan δ) nor decreased hardness and adhesiveness up to the values observed for fresh wheat dough. The Tg of dough with calcium carbonate increased, while for samples with organic calcium salts, it (citrate and lactate) decreased. The tf of thawed dough significantly increased. The Vs of all breads did not change during the first 30 days but decreased after freezing the dough for 60 days (p < 0.05), probably due to the death of the yeasts. Crumb moisture decreased over time, and in all cases crumb C had the highest moisture content, suggesting a dehydration effect of the calcium salt. The firmness of CA, LA and C crumbs were similar and higher than that of CI (p < 0.05), suggesting a destabilizing effect of CI anion on gluten proteins. Inulin contributed to the depreciation of bread quality, mainly at 60 days of dough freezing storage. It can be concluded that during freezing storage, calcium improves the dynamic elasticity of the dough, although under extreme conditions it generates loaves of smaller volume. Principal component analysis (PCA) explained 66.5% of total variance. Principal component 1 (PC1) was associated with dough properties, and accounted for 44.8% of the total variance. In turn, PC2 was mainly related to baking quality parameters (fermentation time, browning index, firmness and springiness of crumbs), and explained 21.7% of the total variance. Fortification with calcium citrate should be recommended for dough freezing, as breads with softer crumbs were obtained under such conditions.

Changes in Antioxidant Properties and Amounts of Bioactive Compounds during Simulated In Vitro Digestion of Wheat Bread Enriched with Plant Extracts

Cereal preparation can be an excellent source of substances with proven health-promoting properties. Unfortunately, some types of bread, such as white flour bread, are devoid of many valuable nutrients. Therefore, it is necessary to look for ways to increase its density and nutritional value. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of stabilized plant extracts on the quality of bread, its antioxidant activity and polyphenol content, and to evaluate the stability of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity during in vitro digestion. The research material was the wheat bread baked with spray dried microcapsules of hawthorn bark, soybeans and onion husks in maltodextrin or inulin carriers. The addition of plant extracts resulted in the presence of phenolic compounds in the wheat bread, and its antioxidant activity significantly increased. There was no significant difference in antioxidant activity between breads containing microcapsules with different carriers. During in vitro digestion, procyanidins and isoflavones in bread were more resistant to the digestive processes than other compounds. The antioxidant activity during simulated digestion was the highest at the stage of gastric digestion, and its value depended on the extract used and the analytical method applied.

Development of gluten-free muffins utilizing squash seed dietary fiber

Gluten-free muffins with squash seed flour (SSF) were developed for contribute to reduce nutritional deficiencies and improving the health of the celiac population. Physicochemical and sensory properties of muffins were evaluated. SSF was incorporated at two levels (10 and 20% w/w) in commercial gluten-free premix (control). Incorporation of SSF increased total dietary fiber content, protein and unsaturated fatty acids. The addition of SSF at 10% resulted in a muffin that did not differ significantly from the control muffin; and also that formulations with SSF at 20% caused an increase in the browning index. Browning was favored by the increase of SSF with higher levels of fiber content. Incorporation of SSF at 20% had a significant effect on the textural parameters (firmness and chewiness) of the muffin. Also, both formulations containing SSF showed a higher overall acceptability, particularly muffins with 20% of SSF that rendered the highest scores for sponginess, texture, taste and colour.

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.

Technological quality of dough and breads from commercial algarroba-wheat flour blends

Algarroba flour is used to supplement lysine-limiting systems such as wheat flour due to its amino acidic composition. The effects of adding up to 30% of this flour to wheat flour (W-A30) on dough characteristics and breadmaking performance were studied. Dough rheology was tested by farinograph, oscillatory rheometry and texture profile analyses. Molecular mobility was evaluated by nuclear magnetic resonance, and thermal properties were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry and viscoamylograph studies. Besides, different bread quality parameters were evaluated. Incorporation of algarroba flour resulted into increase in water absorption, development time and degree of softening, and decrease in stability of wheat flour, leading to softer, less adhesive and elastic dough, although at intermediate replacement levels cohesiveness improved. At the molecular level, a reduction of water activity and limited proton motion were observed in W-A30 samples, suggesting that protons were highly bound to the dough matrix. Dough samples with algarroba flour showed lower G' and G″ values than the control, although with the formation of a more elastic structure for W-A30. In addition, algarroba flour produced a protective effect on starch granule disruption and interfered with amylose-amylose association during cooling. The specific volume of breads decreased with the increase in algarroba level, W-A30 reaching the highest decrease (15%). Bread crumbs with algarroba flour exhibited higher values of hardness and resilience. The use of algarroba flour resulted in lower quality when compared to the control. However, algarroba flour at 20% level can be added to wheat flour to obtain bakery products of similar technological quality and with improved nutritional components.