Adding wheat bran extracts to meat products may enhance the oxidative product stability while also enriching the product with natural functional ingredients, according to a study published in the Journal of Food Science.

Researchers at Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, and the University of Burgos in Spain, evaluated antioxidant properties of rye and wheat bran extracts and their effects on the antioxidant potential, shelf life and quality characteristics of beef hamburgers. Rye and wheat bran extracts containing phenolic compounds and demonstrating high radical scavenging and oxygen radical absorbance capacities (ORAC) were tested in beef hamburgers as possible functional ingredients. Bran extracts significantly increased the indicators of antioxidant potential of meat products and their global antioxidant response (GAR) during physiological in vitro digestion. The extracts also inhibited the formation of oxidation products, hexanal and malondialdehyde, of hamburgers during their storage; however, they did not have significant effect on the growth of microorganisms.

Hamburgers with 0.8-percent wheat bran extract demonstrated the highest antioxidant potential. Some effects of bran extracts on other quality characteristics such as pH, color, formation of metmyoglobin also were observed, but the effects did not have negative influence on the overall sensory evaluation score of hamburgers. The researchers concluded “the use of bran extracts in meat products may be considered as promising means of increasing oxidative product stability and enriching with functional ingredients which might possess health benefits."