Tailoring the Malting Process of Naked Oats (Avena nuda L.) for Minimal Lipid Deterioration

Background and Objectives Oat products have an outstanding nutritional profile and a pleasant flavor, both of which may be positively impacted by manufacturing them from malted oats. However, because oats have high contents of lipids rich in unsaturated fatty acids (FAs) and high lipase activity levels, they are prone to lipid oxidation and hydrolysis, resulting in off‐flavors. Here, processing conditions were tailored to minimize lipid degradation during malting of naked oats. Findings During steeping, the free fatty acid (FFA) content in naked oats decreased ninefold. During subsequent sprouting (48 h, 17°C), the proportion of palmitic and oleic acid in the total fatty acid population slightly decreased (by 1.5%–2.1%), whereas that of linoleic acid slightly increased (by 2.5%). The contents of FFAs and of secondary oxidation products, measured as malondialdehyde, increased during sprouting (48–96 h, 10°C–17°C) but less when prior disinfection of the grains using sodium hypochlorite (15 min, 1.0% w/v) or kilning (21 h, 55°C–82°C) was executed. Conclusions Optimization is required when malting oats for the production of whole‐grain clean label food products meeting consumer demands. Significance and Novelty The present work is a step toward understanding degradation of oat lipids during malting.