Characterization and Effect of Refining on the Oil Extracted from Durum Wheat By-Products

University of Bari and Casillo Next Gen Food’s R&D Labs for a research publication on the international journal MDPI

ChaNGe’s R&D team and University of Bari strictly worked together to characterize the durum wheat oil, extracted from selected durum wheat milling by-products. The result of the research was published on MDPI within the 2022 Special Issue “Upcycling of Agro-Food Chain By-Products to Obtain High-Added Value Foods”.

Please find the abstract below:
“Durum wheat is one of the most important cereal grains worldwide, used mostly for pasta making and bakery products. The by-products derived for the milling process, although very abundant, have only limited use. The aim of this work was to characterize the oils extracted from the by-products of debranning (DP) and milling processes (MP) of durum wheat and to follow the changes due to the refining process on the minor components. The results showed that DP had significantly higher oil content than MP, but it was characterized by a significantly lower amount of tocols. Polyunsaturated fatty acids content was similar (around 62% of total fatty acids). Consequently, a mixture of DP/MP (60/40 w/w) was chosen as a basis for further studies concerning the refining process. During refining, carotenoids almost disappeared while tocols were reduced by 24% on average. Free fatty acids, peroxide value, and oxidized triacylglycerols were significantly reduced by refining, while triacylglycerol oligopolymers were significantly higher than the crude oil. Durum wheat oil had an outstanding content of phytosterols and policosanols. Overall, the edible oil obtained from durum wheat after refining could be considered a good source of phytochemicals and could represent a valuable strategy to valorize the by-products from durum wheat mills.”