Fortification of durum wheat spaghetti and common wheat bread with wheat bran protein concentrate-impacts on nutrition and technological properties

•Protein concentrate from durum wheat bran (WBPC) was incorporated into pasta and bread.•Pasta protein and essential amino acids doubled with 20%WBPC addition.•Pasta with 10%WBPC had minimal impact on quality but superior to wholemeal pasta.•Bread formulation was very sensitive to WBPC above 1% addition. Plant industrial by-products have generally low value but can be a good source of nutritional compounds. Wheat bran is the main by-product of wheat milling and contains >15% high-quality proteins. Extraction of wheat bran proteins (WBPC) and inclusion in spaghetti and bread formulations was studied to determine if the nutritional properties of these foods could be enhanced without deleterious effects on quality. Semolina was substituted with WBPC at 0, 1, 5, 10 and 20% (w/w) and made into spaghetti and a commercial bread flour was substituted with WBPC at 0, 1, 5 and 10% w/w and made into bread. Both spaghetti protein content (12.3 to 23.4%) and total essential amino acids (3.76 to 7.59%) increased with added WBPC. Overall spaghetti quality was acceptable up to 10%WBPC and superior to wholemeal, especially in appearance. However, the bread formulation used was very sensitive to WBPC especially above 1% addition.