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Durum wheat germ oil, improved oxidative stability compared to sunflower oil

This study suggests that durum wheat germ oil can be effectively used in biscuit-making instead of sunflower oil to decrease the oxidative phenomena and increase the bioactives of the end-products.

Lipids play an important role in defining the overall quality of biscuits, particularly in terms of resistance to oxidation, as well as for their influence on textural and sensorial properties. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of durum wheat oil on the physico-chemical and sensory features of biscuits. Control biscuits (C) prepared with the commonly used sunflower oil were compared with samples prepared with durum wheat oil at 50% (D50) and 100% replacement levels (D100). The reformulated biscuits were very rich in tocols, especially tocotrienols (982.9, 635.2, and 64.1 mg/kg on lipid fraction weight in D100, D50, and C, respectively). The higher content of antioxidants extended the resistance to the oxidation of biscuits (induction time = 53.61, 70.87, and 79.92 h in C, D50, and D100, respectively). D100 showed the lowest amounts of triacylglycerol oligopolymers and oxidized triacylglycerols, and the lowest amounts of the volatile markers of lipid oxidation (hexanal and nonanal). The use of durum wheat oil did not affect the sensorial and textural properties, compared to C. This study suggests that durum wheat oil could be effectively used in biscuit-making to decrease the oxidative phenomena and increase the bioactives of the end-products.

Results from the study demonstrated that durum wheat oil incorporation into biscuits improves the oxidative stability of the end-products, due to the high content of tocotrienols which characterizes this kind of oil. Moreover, the use of durum wheat oil did not influence negatively the physical and sensory characteristics of biscuits compared to the commonly used sunflower oil.

Wheat oil is currently produced mostly from soft wheat germ by solvent extraction and subsequent refining, being the by-products from durum wheat de-branning and milling still largely underused. The food industry should start exploiting its full potential, still partially undiscovered, also to face the possible unavailability of soft wheat. Innovative uses of durum wheat by-products would lead to an improvement of the nutritional characteristics of food products and satisfy customers’ demands for healthy and functional foods. Further investigations will be therefore carried out to study the use of durum wheat oil in other bakery products.

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