Reintegration of Brewers Spent Grains in the Food Chain: Nutritional, Functional and Sensorial Aspects

Abstract

Nowadays, the pandemic situation has encouraged the idea of sustainable healthy foods leading to new trends in food consumption. Brewers spent grain (BSG) represents a potential functional food rich in fiber, protein, lipids, mineral and phenols that needs to be further exploited. In this vein, five different BSG types were collected from local breweries and valorized in cookies manufacturing. Thus, proximate composition (protein, minerals, lipids, ash, crude fiber and carbohydrates) was analyzed using AACC (American Association of Cereal Chemists) methods, DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), and Folin Ciocalteu methods were used to determined antioxidant activity and total phenols, while minerals and aroma volatile compounds were performed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and ITEX/GC-MS (in tube extraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) respectively. Color and physical characteristics, together with sensorial analysis, were also evaluated. The results highlighted a significant difference between BSG samples, mainly from the total phenols, antioxidant activity and aroma volatile compounds point of view. BSG volatiles compounds from the aldehydes group such as 2-methyl-propanal, 3-methyl-butanal and 2-methyl-butanal were identified also in the final baked goods, leading to a pleasant and appreciated consumers’ taste and aroma. Furthermore, cookies sensorial analysis emphasized that the sample manufactured with BSG from light and dark malt mixture was more appreciated by consumers, attaining the highest hedonic scores.

The Potential of Brewer’s Spent Grain in the Circular Bioeconomy: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

“…In the food industry, BSG is used for the production of bread (Neylon et al, 2021), cookies (Farcas et al, 2021), muffins (Combest et al, 2020), pasta (Schettino et al, 2021), cereal bars (Stelick et al, 2021), chips (Garrett et al, 2021) and yogurt (Naibaho et al, 2022). The increased content of dietary fiber helps in the elimination of cholesterol and fats and improves the symptoms of ulcerative colitis.…”

In Vitro Digestibility of Minerals and B Group Vitamins from Different Brewers’ Spent Grains

“…The brewers' spent grain samples were kindly obtained from Romanian industrial breweries, which were dried for 12 h and milled using a professional laboratory mill (IKA A10, Staufen, Germany), as previously described by our research group [3]. The codification of the 4 by-products resulting from beer processing, the raw materials used, and the roasting treatments are displayed in Table 1.…”

“…Brewers' spent grain (BSG) is the main by-product obtained from the industrial brewing process, and EU brewing alone generates annually a total amount of 3.4 million tons of BSG [3]. According to Andres et al [4], the production of one hectoliter of beer generates 20 kilos of BSG, and the number of breweries has recently doubled in the EU, nowadays reaching a total number of 9500.…”

“…It is worth pointing out that BSG represents 85% of the brewing waste and is a valuable source of bioactive compounds such as minerals, vitamins, fiber (hemicellulose, lignin, cellulose), proteins, and amino acids [3,5]. BSG contains important amounts of B group vitamins such as thiamine (B 1 ), riboflavin (B 2 ), niacin (B 3 ), pyridoxine (B 6 ), pantothenic (B 5 ), and folic acids, but also higher amounts of minerals such as calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), and magnesium (Mg), together with manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), potassium (K), and copper (Cu) [6].…”

Cereal Waste Valorization through Conventional and Current Extraction Techniques—An Up-to-Date Overview

“…The insoluble fraction of barley grains separated before the wort fermentation process represents approximately 85% of the total by-products of the brewing process [ 5 ]. In 2017, European beer production was approximately 39.7 billion liters, with BSG accounting for 20 kg every 100 L of beer [ 6 ], whilst, in 2019, a total amount of 1.91 billion hectoliters of beer were produced worldwide [ 7 ]. BSG is mainly composed of a lignocellulosic substrate that is rich in proteins, polysaccharides, and bioactive compounds including polyphenols [ 6 ].…”