This study mainly focuses on a strategy for reducing acrylamide in the whole-wheat bread by combining lactobacilli and yeast in sourdough breadmaking. The combination of sourdough (fermented dough using different lactobacilli strains including Lactobacillus plantarum PTCC 1896 (probiotic), L. sakei DSM 20017, L. rhamnosus DSM 20021 and L. delbrueckii DSM 20081) and yeast, in comparison with yeast alone, was used for breadmaking. The results showed that the acrylamide levels of fermented breads by sourdough+yeast were in all cases much lower (6.9-20 ?g/kg d.b) than those in the yeast fermented bread (47.6 ?g/kg d.b). Significant ( p 0.05) correlations were also found between pH, total titratable acids (TTA) and lactic acid, and acrylamide content. Furthermore, the obtained results showed that the moisture content of dough directly influenced the formation of acrylamide in bread (r=0.925, p 0.0001). In addition, no significant correlations were observed between either acrylamide content in breads and the reducing sugar or free amino acid contents in dough samples. According to different effects of Lactobacillus strains, it could be concluded that acrylamide reducing potential of lactobacilli was strain specific; with L. rhamnosus being the most effective one. This could suggest that sourdough fermentation with appropriate lactobacilli strains can be used as an advantageous technology to reduce the acrylamide content of whole-wheat breads.
