Improving The Appeal Of Whole Wheat Bread

news headlines

email to a friend

printer friendly

Improving The Appeal Of Whole Wheat Bread

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet

Article Date: 11 Jan 2013

The key to giving whole wheat bread a more appetizing aroma and taste may lie in controlling the amounts of a single chemical compound that appears in the bread, which nutritionists regard as more healthful than its refined white counterpart. That's the finding of a new study in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, which opens the door to making whole wheat bakery products more appealing to millions of people.

Devin G. Peterson and colleagues explain that whole wheat flour includes all three layers of the grain - bran, germ and endosperm - while refined flour is mostly endosperm. Whole wheat flour contains more fiber and compounds called phytochemicals, both of which can help reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Despite wheat bread's benefits, many consumers choose white bread because they prefer its taste and aroma. Peterson wanted to find out how one specific compound prevalent in whole wheat flour impacts its taste and aroma.

They focused on ferulic acid (FA), found mainly in bran. Scientists already knew that FA suppresses one of the critical components of baked bread's aroma. When Peterson's team added FA to white flour dough, the bread tasted and smelled like wheat bread. They linked those changes to reduced amounts of a number of compounds that help shape bread's aroma. Understanding these chemical reactions could help bakers make healthier bread more appetizing, the study suggests.

Original article posted on Medical News Today.
Articles not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Medical News Today publishes the latest health news and health videos for consumers and health professionals. It has a searchable archive of over 100,000 health news articles.

< back to medical news

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Send your press releases to