USE

CRUSKEA® can be used in many ways, both as a natural improver in pastry and as an ingredient, for example, in bread and pastries, snacks, yoghurt, fruit compotes and purees, soups, ice cream, etc. It is also ideal when wishing to exploit the appeal of bran to consumers of wholegrain products, with the advantage of not having the taste and texture of bran. It can also be used to promote a particularly fibre-rich as well as tasty diet, with particular focus on functional foods, broadening the use of bran to innovative areas where it has not yet been used.

(Cfr Health and functional characteristics section).

Advantages for baked and pastry product dough:

  • Reduces viscosity
  • Reduces elasticity and stickiness.
  • Increases crumbliness.
  • Gives baking stability.
  • Gives stability to after-baking characteristics.
  • Exceptional non-stick quality.
  • Does not alter the flavour.
  • Gives a golden colour.
  • No changes to recipes and methodologies.
  • Cooking temperatures remain the same.
  • Ideal nut substitute in terms of behaviour and colour.
  • Excellent natural improver to be used in customary flour blends, even in minimal quantities of 4-5%.
  • Gives plenty of creative freedom, allowing doses ranging from 4% to 60% to be used, depending on the intended use.
  • Suitable for industrial application.

Health and functional characteristics:

Clinical and laboratory tests conducted in collaboration with the University of Padua and the ASL (local health authority) n°5 of Arzignano (VI) have demonstrated that the product has greater moisture absorption and retention capacity than other commercially available bran, as well as having the added beneficial effects of fibre in the stimulation of the gastro-intestinal tract. The product also has low fermentability, causing less and slower production of the intestinal gas responsible for a feeling of abdominal heaviness. Tests have shown that, when eaten with a variety of foods in the maximum recommended dose of 30 g a day for one month and as part of a normal diet, it is effective in the clinical resolution of constipation problems and the normalization of the discomfort associated with irritable bowel syndrome. During the tests, the product helped reduce, and in some cases suspend, the use of laxatives, avoiding the feeling of bloating. The product taken as is with a variety of foods (test subjects preferred yoghurt) was also pleasing from an organoleptic point of view. When consumed regularly in baked products, its properties remain unchanged.