Prebiotic Content of Bread Prepared with Flour from Immature Wheat Grain and Selected Dextran-Producing Lactic Acid Bacteria

Abstract

In the last few years the need to produce food with added value has fueled the search for new ingredients and health-promoting compounds. In particular, to improve the quality of bakery products with distinct nutritional properties, the identification of new raw materials, appropriate technologies, and specific microbial strains is necessary. In this study, different doughs were prepared, with 10% and 20% flour from immature wheat grain blended with type "0 America" wheat flour. Immature flour was obtained from durum wheat grains harvested 1 to 2 weeks after anthesis. Doughs were obtained by both the straightdough and sourdough processes. C ereals are a source of oligosaccharides, such as fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and transgalacto-oligosaccharides (1). Oligosaccharides are defined as carbohydrates with a degree of polymerization from 3 to 10. They are soluble in water and moderately sweet. Oligosaccharides have higher molecular weights than mono-and disaccharides and can be used to increase viscosity. Furthermore, oligosaccharides have a high water-holding capacity, preventing excessive drying, and are also inhibitors of starch retrogradation (2). FOS are oligomers formed by chains of fructose obtained from fructosyl-nystose with increasing lengths, namely, kestose, nistose, and fructosilnistose, normally present in the tissues of many plants. FOS are the category of nondigestible carbohydrates most often used as a prebiotic food ingredient.

Industrial application of selected lactic acid bacteria isolated from local semolinas for typical sourdough bread production

“…In this work, the values of pH registered after 16 h of sourdough fermentation ranged between 4.1 and 4.5. These values of pH fall within the common range reported for mature durum wheat sourdoughs produced in southern Italy (Minervini et al, 2012;Pepe et al, 2013;Rizzello et al, 2015;Ventimiglia et al, 2015). In particular, 4.1 represents the value at which the bread makers consider a sourdough ready to be used as leavening agent for PPA bread production.…”

“…In general, the highest TTAs were registered after the fourth refreshments. The levels of TTA reached at the last refreshment (S6) were similar to those displayed by mature sourdoughs produced in southern Italy made from semolina (Minervini et al, 2012;Pepe et al, 2013;Rizzello et al, 2015;Ventimiglia et al, 2015). Furthermore, the analyses of lactic and acetic acid showed levels comparable to those reported for the sourdoughs produced in Sicily (Ventimiglia et al, 2015).…”

Development of a method for the direct fermentation of semolina by selected sourdough lactic acid bacteria

“…The values of pH and TTA registered after fermentation were comparable to those commonly found in mature durum wheat sourdoughs (Minervini et al, 2012a;Pepe et al, 2013;Rizzello et al, 2015;Ventimiglia et al, 2015). Thus, regarding the acidification of the doughs, the liquid starter culture behaved like a mature sourdough inoculum.…”

Assessment of plant growth promoting activities and abiotic stress tolerance of Azotobacter chroococcum strains for a potential use in sustainable agriculture

“…The DNA sequences were determined and analyzed, as previously reported (Pepe et al, 2013b) and finally compared with the GenBank nucleotide data library using the Blast software (Reference RNA sequences database) at the National Centre of Biotechnology Information website (http://www.ncbi.…”