Valorization of the wheat-alternatives flours to produce high fiber and protein traditional foods

The current market trends in modern sedentary lifestyles drive the development of new functional products able to fulfil consumers’ demand for a healthy diet. Fortification of national staple foods (e.g., bread and pasta) with high fiber and protein content flours has been demonstrated to be a suitable sustainable tool to achieve a valuable nutritional profile while respecting the biodiversity. Among all, legumes and cereals (whole ones) have been reported to have interesting nutritional properties although, the absence of gluten and the presence of anti-nutritional compounds often impair their benefits. Nevertheless, several studies have reported that the use of sourdough fermentation (spontaneous or driven by lactic acid bacteria starters) is a promising strategy for the synthesis/release of bioactive compounds, especially the metabolism of phenolic and protein-derived compounds, and exploitation of the potential of non-conventional flours (legumes and whole grains, containing bran and germ).

UNIBA research team will use high protein (e.g., green and yellow pea) and fiber/b-glucan (e.g., oat and barley) flours to enrich national staple food products i.e., bread and pasta. Aiming at increasing the bioavailability of the nutrients (protein and fiber) as well as at decreasing the anti-nutritional factors, the flours will preliminary be subjected to fermentation with ad-hoc selected microbial strains (mainly lactic acid bacteria). The bioprocess will be optimized to release bioactive compounds (e.g., peptides and phenolics) able to valorize in terms of functionality (e.g., antioxidant activity) and to prolong the shelf-life (e.g., antioxidant and anti-microbial activities) of the novel enriched product. The use of enzymes, in combination with microbial strains, will also be considered to intensify/speed up the bioprocess.

We expect to produce either bread and/or pasta (dried or fresh) with enhanced nutrition and functional properties as well as prolonged shelf-life. The most promising microbial strains and enzymes will be selected, and the fermentation/enzymatic protocols optimized to favor the enhancement of the nutritional and functional properties of the cereal-based products. Also, we expect to optimize the formulation and preparation protocol to produce bread and pasta which will be characterized.