Storage stability and quality assessment of processed cereal brans.

Quality improvement of cereal brans, a health promoting ingredient for functional foods is the emerging research concept due to their low shelf stability and presence of non-nutrient components. A study was conducted to evaluate the storage quality of processed milling industry byproducts so that these can be potentially utilized as a dietary fibre source. Different cereal brans (wheat, rice, barley and oat) were processed by dry, wet, microwave heating, extrusion cooking and chemical methods at variable conditions. Processed brans were stored in high density polyethylene (HDPE) pouches at ambient and refrigeration temperature. Quality assessments (moisture, free fatty acids, water activity and physical quality) of brans were done up to six months, at one month intervals. Free fatty acid content, moisture and water activity of the cereal brans remained stable during the entire storage period. Among treatments, extrusion processing is the most effective for stability. Processing treatments and storage temperature have the positive effect on extending the shelf life of all cereal brans. Therefore, processed cereal brans can be used as a dietary fortificant for the development of value added food products.