New functional ingredients from agri-food by-product for fortified food

A wheat bran hydrolisate was obtained using commercial enzyme preparations selected in order to get all the enzymatic activities needed (Cellulases, Hemicellulases, Arylesterases, etc.) to get a liquid suspension containing 168,39 mg/L of ferulic acid and 703 ORAC/L as measure of the antioxidant activity. Fortified breads were prepared by substituting different percentages of water (33,3%, 50% e 100% w/w ) with the hydrolised wheat bran during dough preparation. After bread making samples were extracted to recover the phenolic fraction in which the amount of ferulic acid was found proportional to the added quantity of wheat bran hydrolysate. Surprisingly the antioxidant activity measured on the same extracts shown higher values than expected considering the antioxidant activities of each individual ingredient, up to 400% than the theoretical values. The ORAC/L values vs. wheat bran hydrolysate added had an exponential trend likely due to an interaction between some component of hydrolysed bran and the yeast during the bread making process.