Lorenzo Siroli from the University of Bologna presented the improvement of functional and technological characteristics of pre-fermented ingredients obtained from milling by-products fermented by selected consortia of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts at the VIII International Symposium on Sourdough.

In 2020/21 the global wheat production was an astronomical 772.6 million metric tons, which in turn produced an estimated 170 million tons of wheat bran. This by-product could be used as a valuable ingredient, however, less than 10% is used for food application.

The INGREEN project is developing new ways to use milling by-products from wheat and rye. For example, as a valuable ingredient for food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic formulations. Together with INGREEN project partners MTU, Barilla, Pivetti and FNHW, the University of Bologna is developing biotechnology to make pre-fermented ingredients from wheat and rye bran for the bakery industry.

This talk presented the microbiological characterization, isolation and identification of yeasts and lactic acid bacteria from the different kinds of spontaneously fermented bran. In addition, information was provided on the pre-treatment and optimization of operative conditions to produce pre-fermented ingredients for the bakery and nutraceutical sectors. Subsequently, the research results on the nutritional, technological and functional characterization of these pre-fermented ingredients were shared, as well as results from the bakery prototype trials.

Lorenzo Siroli presented his findings on Wednesday 15 June at the VIII International Symposium on Sourdough held in Bolzano, Italy, from 14-17 June 2022.