  By-products represent a major disposal problem for the food industry, but
they are also promising sources of bioactive compounds. Olive pomace, one of
the main by-products of olive oil production, is a potential low-cost,
phenol-rich ingredient for the formulation of functional food. In this study,
bakery products enriched with defatted olive pomace powder and their
conventional counterparts were chemical characterized and in vitro digested.
The bioaccessible fractions were supplemented to cultured human intestinal
cells exposed to an inflammatory stimulus, and the anti-inflammatory effect and
metabolome modification were evaluated. Although in all bakery products the
enrichment with olive pomace significantly increased the total phenolic
content, this increase was paralleled by an enhanced anti-inflammatory activity
only in conventionally fermented bread. Therefore, while confirming olive oil
by-products as functional ingredients for bakery food enrichment, our data
highlight that changes in chemical composition cannot predict changes in
functionality. Functionality should be first evaluated in biological in vitro
systems, and then confirmed in human intervention studies.
