Sourdough starter culture and breadmaking process impact wholemeal bread characteristics associated with starch...

This study explored how sourdough affected wholemeal bread's starch digestibility by determining the impact of the sourdough starter culture and breadmaking process on bread characteristics and in vitro starch digestion kinetics. Wholemeal wheat sourdoughs prepared with strains of (i) Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis and Maudiozyma humilis, (ii) Pediococcus pentosaceus and M. humilis, or (iii) Companilactobacillus crustorum and Wickerhamomyces anomalus, and baker's yeast were used in two breadmaking processes (total fermentation times of 100 and 530 min). The specific volume (1.57-2.90 mL/g), pH (4.1-6.2), total titratable acidity (3.6-11.9 mL of 0.1 M NaOH), and water-extractable arabinoxylan level (0.64-1.23 % dm) were affected by the sourdough used and process applied. Despite differences in bread characteristics, in vitro digestion of starch reached a plateau after 30 min for all bread types. Slightly, but insignificantly, more resistant starch was found in long-fermented bread prepared with C. crustorum and W. anomalus sourdough (10.9 % of total starch) than with baker's yeast (7.1 % of total starch). These findings highlight the need for further research on optimising sourdough fermentation to enhance the health-related properties of bread, such as resistant starch content.