Impact of wheat bran micronization on dough properties and bread quality: Part II – Quality, antioxidant and nutritional properties of bread

•Superfine wheat bran increased the hardness and brightness of bread crumb.•Bran fortification up to 20% was overall acceptable to consumers (score > 6)•Superfine wheat bran retarded bread staling.•Superfine wheat bran decreased releasing rate of glucose during bread digestion.•Superfine wheat bran increased releasing rate of antioxidants during digestion. To investigate the impact of superfine grinding of wheat bran on bread quality, antioxidant and nutritional properties, bran with different particle sizes (coarse, D50 of 362.3 μm; medium, 60.4 μm; superfine, 11.3 μm) were produced and fortified to white bread at three levels (10, 20 and 30%). At 20% fortification, compared to coarse bran, superfine bran increased the hardness and reduced the brightness of bread crumb by 56.3 and 3.30%, respectively, while it decreased bread’s cell size by 10.7% and insignificantly impacted on bread’s specific volume and porosity. Superfine bran retarded bread staling by 8.3% than coarse bran. It resulted in significantly better sensory attributes of bread in taste, texture and general palatability, and the fortified bread was overall acceptable (score > 6). Moreover, faster release of antioxidants (285–353% higher k), slower release of glucose (10.8% lower k), 3.76% less rapidly digestible starch, 5.65% more slowly digestible starch and 13.2% more resistant starch were found in the superfine group than the coarse one. Results demonstrated the potential of 20% fortification of superfine bran in developing fibre-enriched bread with satisfactory quality, increased antioxidant property and improved glycaemic modulation.