Bacterial nanocellulose as a potential additive for wheat bread

Abstract

Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) is an emerging nanomaterial with a morphologic structure of a 3-D network and unique properties produced by several species of bacteria. The objective of the present work was to evaluate whether the addition of BNC improved the baking quality of wheat flours, making a change in the viscoelastic behavior of the mass. A study of the rheological behavior of wheat bread dough containing BNC was performed by thermo-rheological and isothermal dynamic oscillatory experiments. The baking response and bread quality parameters were also analyzed. BNC increased specific volume, and moisture retention, decreasing browning index. Although BNC produced both raw and heat-treated doughs with more elastic characteristics, textural studies revealed that the addition of BNC reduced firmness of bread crumb. Confocal laser scanning microscopy observations showed differences in gluten filaments between control and BNC crumb samples that could explain the larger average porous size of BNC crumb. BNC could be used as improver in the bread-making performance.