Nutritionally enhanced wheat-oat bread with reduced acrylamide level

Consumption of nutritionally enhanced wheat-oat bread naturally rich in beta-glucans originating from extra-wholemeal oat flour with improved digestibility by lactic fermentation provides unambiguous health benefits associated with a slower blood glucose release and a higher subjective satiety determined by a postprandial study. However, an undesirable elevated acrylamide formation in the crust of bread was observed due to a high level of a main precursor amino acid L-asparagine in oat flour. Lactic fermentation of oat flour by Lactobacillus plantarum and 30% substitution of extra-wholemeal oat flour with fermented oat sourdough led to more attractive organoleptic quality of wheat-oat fermented bread and to a decrease of pH value which suppressed acrylamide level up to 10%. As a more effective tool of acrylamide reduction a commercial asparaginase enzyme was used, applied on a surface of the bread loaf during proofing and before baking. This enzyme treatment resulted in a more than 46% decrease of acrylamide in the crust from 390 mu g/kg to the level of 210 mu g/kg without any alterations to the expected quality of the newly designed bread.