Raw Materials in Fibre Enriched Biscuits Production as Source of Total Phenols

Due to scientifically well documented health beneficial effects of dietary fibres and recommendations for an every day intake on an average of 30 g by food (DRI 2005), the confectionery industry has been increasingly engaged in the production of fibre enriched biscuits with the aim to offer such a product as a valuable constituent of proper nutrition and dietetic functional food intended for risky populations. Thereby, commercially available pure fibres or fibre-rich raw materials have been used for the enrichment of biscuits, prevalently pure fibres. To evaluate such products as functional food it is of interest to know how the choice of raw material for biscuit fibre enrichment influences the content of other health protecting compounds which commonly accompany fibres in plant material. With the aim of evaluating fibre rich biscuits as a source of total phenols depending on the origin of fibres, total phenols were determined spectrophotometrically by a modified Folin-Ciocalteau method (Gao et al. 2002) in ten experimentally baked biscuits based on wheat flour type 500 and type 1700 with or without different dietary fibres or fibre rich raw materials added instead of definite amount of white fl our. Results show that shares of total phenols and fibres in biscuits based on the wheat fl our depend on the type of the fl our. Biscuits with pure wheat and oats fibres added were the lowest in phenol content regardless on the highest amount of fibres (0.96 g kg-1 and 1.09 g kg-1, respectively); inulin and amaranth do not change essentially phenol content; apple fibres, soya fl our, and carob fl our enhance phenol content thereby carob fl our being the most effective giving biscuits 5.53 g total phenols kg-1