Bilateral project ARRS SLO-SRB: Innovative fermentation of cereals and pseudocereals for functional bakery products

Duration of the project:

1.1.2016 – 31.12.2017

Partner:

University of Novi Sad, Research Center of Technology of Plant Based Food Products

Principal investigator / researcher:

Abstract:

Screening of the population and active search for patients in high-risk populations with the use of new diagnostic methods shows that Celiac disease is often a chronic disorder with an incidence of 1:100 which still increases. Celiac disease is nowadays defined as an immunemediated systemic disease caused by consumption of gluten and related proteins, and is manifested with a variety of clinical symptoms and signs. These include typical gastrointestinal and / or non-intestinal symptoms. Celiac disease is characterized by the presence of celiac disease-specific antibodies, HLA DQ2 and DQ8 and different degrees of enteropathy. The treatment of celiac disease is still closely linked to a gluten-free diet. Buckwheat, as being gluten free cereal, is uncourtly the food of the future, not only because of the many beneficial human health effects, but also to maintain healthy soil, water and air. The purpose of this
research is to deliver the buckwheat as a nutritional challenge for the celiac disease treatment in the bakery product. The group of people who can enjoy gluten, but the gluten-free diet or prefer gluten low diet is also growing in last decade. The consumers of this kind clam to feel better what represent new way in gluten-free foods and is trendy in dietary habits.

Consequently, we need new suitable products and our proposed project is very promising line of development for which we need collaborative research. Gluten-free breads on the market are in comparison with their wheat-based counterparts defined by lower sensory characteristics as volume, consistence and freshness; from nutritional point of view they are poor in the content of fibres, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The major task for the preservation and standardization of traditional technologies of fermented food products is an income of organolepticaly optimal, high value food products for human consumption. Fermented food products have been recently recognized as probiotic and prebiotic food, especially due to presence of certain strains of bacteria and yeasts and due to the presence of specific substrates which act as prebiotics.

In practical terms we will combine various substrates having different polysaccharides as major component and starters with probiotic characters. The most important deliverables will be related to the development of new and improved gluten-free bread based on buckwheat as major source of proteins and starch accompanied with other non-conventional sources; and secondly the development of good practice procedures for the production of gluten-free bread. Both are essential for the food industry in order to start marketing the food product with specially defined functional properties. Along with the investigation of the beneficial effects of the food product, we would like to investigate the possible presence of detrimental compounds, which are important for nutrition, but also for food safety and consequently of help to identify critical points for the control of such hazards. This can have important impact on good practice in traditional food production as well in further processing in the food industry.

In the project we will address buckwheat and and other pseudocerials flour for the production of gluten-free bakery products. Based on recent experiences we will also address the impact of starter culture on texture and shelf life of final product, as well as on its antioxidative potential. Due to production of extracellular components which could contribute to favourable sensory and technological characteristics of product we will apply the probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardi as novel starter culture. Based on this strategy, we will address dough and bread rheology, dough and bread composition of bioactive compounds as well as sensory suitability and palatability of functional bakery products of new generation. The challenge of project is to combine expertise of two university teams in Slovenia one having expertise in food microbiology and safety, one having expertise in nutrition and safety and
industrial partner having knowledge and skills in novel product development and Serbian team having extensive expertise and tradition in dough rheology, chemistry of flours and bakery products among other things. Stating this, it is clear that the teams have proper expertise to address the challenge of gluten free bakery products what is also clearly demonstrated in their publications: Slovenian side on starter cultures and food safety; Serbian partners will contribute expertise in rheology and in art of conventional and unconventional dough preparation. Respecting the challenge and partner expertise each partner will contribute the most valuable and essential part of the activity as follows: University of Primorska: Yeast starter preparation. Test of probiotic and prebiotic characteristics and sensorial evaluation Biotechnical faculty: Yeast starter preparation, Novel bakery product stability
Mlinotest: technological preparation of bakery products , testing the characteristics of the basic ingredients and sensorial evaluation
FINS: rheological characteristics of ingredients, fermentation properties of dough, textural properties of bread, analyses of phenolic compounds, antioxidative potential proximate composition of ingredients and final product, relevant chemical analyses of bioactives.

The following results are expected:
The correlation between various ingredients and recipes and organoleptic and nutritional characteristics of the product,
The correlation between the various additives and microbiological stability of the product, and
Prototypes of various bakery products.
It is expected that partners will run this activity smoothly they will demonstrate results of theproject with common monographic publication.

»The authors acknowledge the Bilateral project SLO-SRB Innovative fermentation of cereals and pseudocereals for functional bakery products was finacially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency.«”.