21 Oct 2026
When you develop a more nutritious bread, you might start with the ingredients: whole grain flour, seeds or a blend of different cereals. But the way those ingredients are processed deserves attention too.
Take sprouting. This early stage of a grain’s growth changes what happens inside the kernel, including how accessible some of its minerals become during digestion. This opens up an interesting question for bakers: how can we make better use of the nutrients grains already contain?
Looking beyond the nutrients on the label
Whole grains contain minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. However, the amount present in an ingredient only tells part of the story. Before the body can absorb a mineral, it needs to be released from the food during digestion.
This is where bioaccessibility comes in. It describes the proportion of a nutrient that becomes available for absorption during digestion.
Think of it as a step between eating a food and absorbing its nutrients. A grain may contain a mineral, but how much becomes accessible depends partly on the grain’s structure and how it has been processed.
What changes when a grain sprouts?
Sprouting begins when a grain receives the moisture and warmth it needs to start growing. Its natural enzymes become active, setting off changes that help support the developing plant.
These changes can also affect the accessibility of nutrients within the grain. Their extent depends on the type of grain and the conditions used during sprouting.
That makes controlled processing important. Understanding what happens inside the grain helps ingredient producers explore its nutritional potential and develop ingredients suited to bakery applications.
What have we learned from sprouted rye?
At Puratos, our Grains and Seeds R&D teams and Health & Well-Being team work with research partners to understand how processing affects the nutritional properties of grains.
Together with ICTAN, the Institute of Food Science, Technology and Nutrition, we studied the effect of sprouting on mineral bioaccessibility in rye. The findings showed calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus became more accessible.
In practical terms, a greater proportion of these minerals became available for absorption during digestion. The study examined this availability, rather than measuring how much people ultimately absorbed.
The research poster received the Best Poster Award at the 8th International Whole Grain Summit in Detmold, Germany, in 2025.
Bringing that understanding into your bread development
For your bakery, this research on rye offers another consideration when choosing grain ingredients. Alongside nutritional composition, flavor and texture, understanding how grains have been processed and what evidence supports their benefits can help you choose ingredients that fit your product goals.
Start with the bread you want to create. Are you enriching an everyday loaf, developing a distinctive whole grain range or refreshing a known recipe? This gives you and your ingredient partner a clear starting point for discussing suitable sprouted grains and the benefits they could bring.
Useful questions to explore together include:
- What was studied? Check which grain, ingredient and sprouting conditions the findings relate to.
- What changed? Distinguish between higher nutrient content and greater nutrient bioaccessibility.
- How relevant are the findings to your recipe? Ask whether the evidence concerns the grain ingredient or a finished bread, and what further assessment may be needed.
- How does the ingredient perform in production? Evaluate its effect on dough handling, flavor, texture and freshness under your usual conditions.
- What can you communicate to customers? Establish which statements are supported for your finished bread and appropriate for your market.
Discussions like these help you move from promising research to a well-defined development plan. Your recipe, inclusion level and baking process all need consideration, so ingredient findings should guide development rather than serve as a guarantee of the finished bread’s benefits.
A bakery trial can then help you assess the eating experience and production performance alongside the nutritional goals. The aim is a bread with a clear, substantiated story, and the taste and texture that make customers choose it again.
At Puratos, we can help you explore sprouted grain ingredients and their role in your bread range. Contact your local representative to discuss your next development.
