Mineral bio-accessibility and intrinsic saccharides in breakfast flakes manufactured from sprouted wheat

The objective was to produce breakfast flakes by extrusion using whole meal from sprouted wheat to increase mineral bio-accessibility and provide intrinsic sweetness without compromising their textural properties. Resting the ingredient mixture containing whole meal from (sprouted) wheat at 50 °C and pH 3.8 for 1 h prior to flake production allowed in situ endogenous phytase action. This resulted in end-products that had higher bio-accessibilities of Fe (29-38%) and of Zn (17-32%) than corresponding values for control flakes (8% and 8%, respectively). Further, the sweetness of breakfast flakes can be enhanced as sprouted grains are a source of intrinsic saccharides released by starch degrading enzymes. Substituting control wheat by sprouted wheat in the breakfast flake recipe led to darker flakes with increased density corrected hardness. The latter was due to lower bulk densities and higher starch crystallinity than observed for control flakes. Nevertheless, the flakes still had 70-80% of their initial hardness after soaking for 30 s in semi-skimmed milk. The here developed wheat flakes meet the growing consumer interest in healthy and tasty foods. Further, the presented technology lowers the need for extrinsic micronutrient fortification by making full use of the nutritional potential of wheat grains.