In vitro bioaccessibility of avenanthramides in cookies made with malted oat flours

This study evaluated the effects of malting and in vitro digestion on the bioaccessibility of six avenanthramides (AVNs), soluble phenols (SPs) and antioxidant capacity (ORAC) in cookies (3B, 4B, 5B) prepared with oat flour malted for three (M3), four (M4), five (M5) days, respectively. Control cookies (CTRL) were made with non‐malted oat flour (M0). Five‐days malting increased the AVN content of native kernels up to 10‐folds, whereas SPs and ORAC tripled their values. After the in vitro digestion, AVNs showed their bioaccessibility in the following order: 5B > 4B > 3B, with a recovery of 1703 μg AVNs per 50 g portion of 5B cookies, compared to 135 μg of CTRL. Results showed that the inclusion of 27% malted oat flour was effective to formulate functional cookies with satisfactory technological properties, high AVN content and bioaccessibility.