Solja Pietiäinen
PhD Project: Fractionation of wheat bran for functional ingredients
Arabinoxylan (AX) is an abundant hemicellulose in wheat bran and an important component in baked products. However, AX is embedded in a complex cell wall matrix and hard to extract efficiently from bran without compromising its properties. This PhD project aims to fractionate wheat bran to generate AX with improved yield and optimal properties for bakery applications to increase the nutritional and technological quality of bread. Fractionation conditions are expected to control the properties of AX, which will in turn affect AX functionality in bread. This industrial PhD project is done in collaboration with Lantmännen, and funded by SSF and Lantmännen stiftelse.
Supervisors
Maud Langton, Department of Molecular sciences, SLU. Annelie Moldin, Lantmännen. Anna Ström, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers. Christian Malmberg, Lantmännen.
Location
Department of Molecular Sciences, SLU.
About Solja
I am originally from Finland and got my MSc at Helsinki University but decided to move to Sweden for this PhD project, because it has so much potential to create positive change. Wheat bran is a huge industrial side stream and if we are able to utilize it as a functional food ingredient, it will help to increase the sustainability of cereal production and the nutritional quality of our diets. As an industrial PhD student, I really enjoy working in the interface between academia and industry where the theory and applicability go hand-in-hand.