Cytotoxicity study of bakery product melanoidins on intestinal and endothelial cell lines

•Within bakery products, soft bread has the highest yield in melanoidins extraction.•Melanoidins from biscuits and soft bread crust present a high antioxidant capacity.•Soft bread melanoidins & their bioaccessible fractions do not affect cell viability.•Soft bread crust by-products are safe and sustainable sources of melanoidins.•Melanoidins from soft bread crust by-products are potential functional ingredients. Melanoidins contribute to organoleptic properties of processed foods and exert benefits in health. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize melanoidins from baked products (common bread, soft bread and biscuits), evaluate their cytotoxicity and determine their suitability as functional additives. Extraction yield, spectrophotometric characteristics, colorimetric properties, antioxidant capacity, and cytotoxicity of melanoidins were assessed. Among the studied products, soft bread had the highest extraction throughput. Melanoidins from biscuit showed the highest antioxidant capacity, closely followed by those of soft bread. Melanoidins did not exert cytotoxic effects on Caco-2 and HUVEC cells (viability was >80%). Nevertheless, incubation of HUVEC cells with melanoidins from common bread and biscuit slightly decreased viability, whereas gastrointestinal digestion of such melanoidins softened the decrease in cell viability. This study point to soft bread as a safe and efficient source of melanoidins, that could be potentially used in the future as functional ingredient.