Preserving Food Healthier: Bran Extracts Offering a High-End Solution

In the food industry, there is a major push to substitute natural alternative for synthetic ingredients. Recently, the researchers in this field have said that a natural antioxidant found in kernel bran can preserve food longer and replace the synthetic food industry varieties used today. Pennsylvania State University scientists studied alkylresorcinols (AR) as a class of compounds that are produced by plants such as wheat, rye, and cement, naturally to protect against the growth of grain kernels in fungi, bacteria and other organisms.

The researchers asked whether ARs can also preserve food from a chemical point of view in the same way. The food industry supplements more of the food industry with healthy oils rich in omega-3 fatty acids, along with the use of more natural ingredients. Adding these healthy oils to foods which would not normally contain them could increase consumers ' health benefits. Omega-3 rich oils, however, have a shorter lifetime which can spoil these foods more quickly.

The majority of those who buy omega-3 are from the marine. They may smell and taste fishy as they break down. Then consumers discard and do not buy these products again, which leads to economic losses. Antioxidants are compounds which slow down the rates of degradation of omega-3 fatty acids, preserve health advantages and prevent spoilage of food so quickly. But in reality, But the reality was there were not many natural alternatives for synthetic antioxidants. In this scenario, researchers have been forced to find new natural antioxidants for longer food life to satisfy consumer needs. ARs also have health benefits for people and can help keep them safe from cancer and make them ideal natural additives. ARs are also derived from the bran layer of cereal plants, usually discarded or used by the food industry for animal feed.

A technique for extracting and purifying ARs from Rye Bran have developed by the research team and then how well ARs can conserve omega-3-rich oil in emulsions in which two fluids cannot be mixed fully like vinegar and oil. Though in this series of experiments the ARs were working as well as other antioxidants, the researchers noted that their AR extracts were not fully pure, which could have decreased the efficacy of the ARs. The researchers also used a combination of various ARs with various molecular structures. Future work on various types of ARs will show whether an individual type of AR is more effective or less than conventional antioxidants.

The creation of natural, safe and effective antioxidants was far from expected. But this was made possible by the researchers' hard work. In addition, they hope that this work will lead one day to ARs on the market and offer the food industry more options to use.