Impact of Functional Supplement Based on Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas L.) Juice in Sourdough Bread Making: Evaluation of Nutritional and Quality Aspects

The production of functional bread has been of great interest lately to the Food Industry. Regarding this, the enrichment of bread with natural raw materials rich in phenolic antioxidants, such as fruits, has become a new trend. Likewise, the aim of the current study was to evaluate novel supplements based on freeze-dried Cornelian cherry juice, both unfermented and fermented by probiotic L. plantarum ATCC 14917, in sourdough bread production. The outcome showed that the fermented supplement led to sourdough bread with elevated nutritional features in terms of its total phenolic content (99.5 mg GAE/100 g) and antioxidant activity (213 mg TE/100 g for ABTS and 4.7 μmol TE/g for DPPH), as well as a reduction in phytic acid (93.3%) compared with all the other bread samples. In addition, the same sample contained higher amounts of lactic (2.91 g/Kg bread) and acetic acid (1.23 g/Kg), as well as formic (0.11 g/Kg), n-valeric (0.12 g/Kg) and caproic (0.05 g/Kg) acids compared with all the other samples, leading to a higher preservation time (13 days) regarding rope and mold spoilage. All breads exhibited the same sensorial characteristics, proving that the supplement did not affect bread quality. This outcome is very interesting since powdered supplements have recently been endorsed in the bread industry for enabling nutritional and technological improvements.