Background
In recent years, an increasing interest in healthy functional foods has been documented among healthâconscious consumers. Steam explosion (SE)âtreated blackâgrained wheat (BGW) bran was explored for the development of chiffon cakes with high nutritional and functional value.
Results
The content of crude fat and total starch decreased with increasing SE pressure, whereas waterâholding capacity and antioxidant activity increased, suggesting SE at 0.6â1.0Â MPa could be an effective technique for enhancing the nutritional and functional properties of wheat bran. The protein, iron, zinc, manganese, selenium, and soluble dietary fiber contents, the waterâholding, oilâbinding, swelling, cholesterol binding, and cationâexchange capacities, and antioxidant activity of SE BGW bran were better than those of SE whiteâgrained wheat bran. The addition of SE bran (0.8Â MPa) to flour significantly decreased the peak viscosity, final viscosity, and setback and increased the pasting temperature. The effect of SE bran on the pasting properties of lowâgluten and mediumâgluten flour was stronger than that of highâgluten flour. SE BGW bran altered the physicochemical properties of chiffon cakes. When 6% SE BGW bran (0.8Â MPa) was added, chiffon cakes exhibited good specific volume, hardness, chewiness, and other sensory qualities.
Conclusions
These results indicate that SE at 0.6â1.0 MPa is an effective technique for enhancing the nutritional and functional properties of wheat bran. SE BGW bran can be alternatives to food materials for developing health functional cerealâbased products. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.