The food market has been experiencing a growing demand for healthy bread in response to related needs. The present work aims to be a contribution to this topic by the production of pure oat flour bread having in mind its nutritional and bioactive components. Aiming to optimize the characteristics of the product, the effects of the flour particle size, physical pre-treatments (extrusion-cooking and steaming), action of different emulsifiers and fermentation time were studied. For bread production the flour hydration degree was determined using the Brabender Farinograph. All the produced breads were evaluated in terms of volume, texture and organoleptic assessment. It was found that the flour particle size affected the hardness and the density of the breads. Those that were produced with the coarser flour were those showing the higher values. The pre-treatments exerted negative effects. With regard to the emulsifiers, the sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (SSL) stood out positively. Combining these results with the fermentation times, it was concluded that the bread presenting better characteristics was the one produced with the coarser flour (2mm), without neither any physical treatment nor addition of emulsifiers, proofed for 30 minutes. Thus, it is feasible to produce oat bread. It should be remarked that the found results may be improved namely by changing the hydration degree or using other technological aids.

Mestrado em Engenharia Alimentar - Processamento dos Alimentos - Instituto Superior de Agronomia