The use of durum wheat oil in the preparation of Focaccia: tradition, innovation, and sustainability

Focaccia is an Italian garnished flat bread, which is differently topped according to regional taste and availability. However, its constant peculiarity is the high amount of oil added to the dough and on the surface, which influences its chemical, physical and sensory properties. This work, with the aim of improving the nutritional features of focaccia, proposed the use of an innovative oil, namely durum wheat oil, and evaluated its effects, in comparison with olive oil and sunflower oil. Durum wheat oil was rich in PUFAs (60.5 ± 0.06%), nevertheless, the focaccia with durum wheat oil was more resistant to oxidation than the one prepared with sunflower oil. These results were due to the higher content of antioxidants, principally tocotrienols, in durum wheat oil (1020 mg kg-1) than in sunflower oil (70.2 mg kg-1). However, focaccia with olive oil was the most resistant to oxidation, due to the abundance of MUFAs (72.5 ± 0.1%) and phenols (81.5 ± 3.2 mg GAE kg-1) in the starting oil. The determination of volatile compounds mirrored these observations, especially in terms of markers of lipid oxidation, as confirmed also by the sensory analysis. The compression test (TPA) showed that durum wheat oil and olive oil determined lower values of hardness, and chewiness than sunflower oil, probably due to their content of diacylglycerols (4.49 ± 0.04%, 3.53 ± 0.06% and 1.93 ± 0.15%, respectively). Durum wheat oil could represent an alternative to the oils currently used, combining tradition, innovation, and sustainability, in a circular key.