Sensory Features Introduced by Brewery Spent Grain with Impact on Consumers' Motivations and Emotions for Fibre-Enriched Products

Brewer's spent grain: Unveiling innovative applications in the food and packaging industry

Brewer's spent grain, a byproduct of beer brewing, is often discarded as waste, leading to environmental concerns. However, the growing interest in sustainability and the circular bioeconomy has prompted research into its use in food and packaging industries. The objective of this review paper is to explore recent advancements in food applications, focusing on various aspects such as processing innovations, food properties, sensory acceptability, and safety considerations. The paper highlights the role of functional bioactive compounds of BSG in food and evaluates their pharmacological activities. Additionally, it investigates the development of sustainable food-packaging materials derived from BSG, discussing their applications, challenges, and potential for eco-friendly packaging solutions. The inclusion of BSG significantly impacts the food matrix during processing, which can negatively affect the physical, rheological, and textural properties and sensory acceptability. To enhance BSGs desirability as a food ingredient, various approaches have been employed, including drying, fermentation, extrusion, and modifications using enzyme treatments, dough enhancers, and texture modifiers. BSG-derived biodegradable films and coatings demonstrate a promising potential for food-packaging applications, offering desirable properties such as sustainability and effective performance. Key challenges for adopting BSG-based solutions in food and packaging industries include limited consumer awareness, commercialization strategies, and the need for life cycle assessment and life cycle costing for successful integration and widespread adoption.

Assessing the Potential of Brewer's Spent Grain to Enhance Cookie Physicochemical and Nutritional Profiles

Brewers' spent grain (BSG), the major by-product of the brewery industry, has high nutritional value, making it suitable for upcycling into products such as healthy, and sustainable cookies. Nonetheless, the incorporation of BSG in cookies can impact their quality, given the increased fiber and protein content. This work explored the effect of replacing wheat flour with BSG at 50% and 75% in cookie formulations, focusing on physical, chemical, and sensory properties. The dietary fiber, lipid, and protein content of cookies improved considerably with the highest incorporation of BSG, increasing from 6.37% to 15.54%, 9.95% to 13.06%, and 9.59% to 12.29%, respectively. Conversely, moisture and water activity decreased from 11.03% to 3.37% and 0.742 to 0.506, respectively, forecasting a lower risk of microbial contamination and increased shelf-life. The incorporation of BSG in cookies resulted in decreased brightness and increased hardness, from 40 N to 97 N. Moreover, colorimetric shifts among the control cookies and the two BSG-rich formulations could be easily identified by an untrained observer. Sensory evaluation showed that cookies with 50% BSG retained acceptable sensory characteristics, suggesting potential for further development. Overall, BSG enhances the nutritional profile of cookies with no excessive detrimental impact on sensory features.

Fostering Circular Economy: Brewing By-Products as Innovative Ingredients for Cereal Bar Formulation

Brewer's spent grain (BSG) was used as a sustainable and healthy ingredient in two cereal bar formulations, with honey (H) and chocolate (C) used as the binding systems' characterizing ingredients. The two bars, formulated using three levels of BSG (H1: 8.5%; H2: 12.7%; H3: 21.2%; C1: 3.9%; C2: 7.7%; C3: 15.5%) and stored for 20 days, were studied from a physicochemical perspective and compared to non-enriched control bars. The analysis showed that BSG enriched the bars with minerals, B vitamins, proteins, and fibers, meeting the required contents for the "high fiber" nutritional claim. Moisture content and water activity decreased with increasing BSG quantity and storage time. Higher BSG content increased flexibility in H bars after 7 days, while decreasing water content and increasing hardness in C bars at 1 storage day. Higher BSG levels darkened the samples' color with little change during storage. In addition, a consumer sensory test was conducted. The results showed that providing information on BSG had little impact on liking, purchase intent, and sensory perception. In addition, under blind conditions, H bars were considered more natural and healthier than the C bars; however, these differences were not significant in the informed conditions. This study shows the potential use of upcycled ingredients in cereal bars and highlights the central role of the sensory experience on consumer appreciation, considering also information provision.

Food-Evoked Emotion, Product Acceptance, Food Preference, Food Choice and Consumption: Some New Perspectives

Food is more than just a source of nutrients-it is a source of basic pleasure and aesthetic experiences [...].