An innovative functional cracker enriched in α-linolenic acid from Camelina oil (Camelina sativa L.): Nutritional and bioaccessibility assessment

Abstract

Today growing interest to accomplish the authorities’ nutritional and health claim is oriented towards vegetable-based α-linolenic acid (ALA) enriched foods.The aim of this work was to develop a cracker (CKO) enriched with Camelina seed (Camelina sativa L.) oil (CO), a well-known ALA and linoleic acid (LA) source. A fast HPLC-WVD method was set up and validated to quantify ALA and LA in CO and CKO. CKO was thought as bread alternatives that meets the health claim of European Commission regulation on cardiovascular well-being.Results indicated an ALA content in CO of 27.06 ± 1.65 g/100 g, with an ALA/LA ratio higher than two; differently, ALA content was of 2.10 ± 0.15 g/100 g in CKO, with lower ratio due to LA contribution of other ingredients. Cooking process did not affect PUFAs content in CO, confirming its stability when incorporated in food products. ALA bioaccessibility was lower than 34 % in raw oil, while increased when CO was incorporated in CKO (40.06 ± 0.83 %), thus indicating a protecting activity within the food matrix. These results confirmed that CKO could represent a suitable food to deliver camelina oil essential fatty acids, even if an additional optimization of the formulation is required to further improve ALA bioaccessibility.

Keywords

• Α-linolenic acid
• Functional cracker
• Camelina sativa
• Bioaccessibility
• HPLC-WVD