## 4 Discussion  
Bread is one of the most widely consumed foods in the world, with over 9 billion kg (20 billion pounds) produced annually [58]. Bread demand is driven by consumers' seeking convenient fresh products that provide a source of nutritional value. Consequently, freshness is a key component in consumer acceptability and choice of bread [52]. In this context, the use of sourdough as a leavening agent improves the nutritional and technological properties of bread, even in terms of its shelf life [5]. The results obtained demonstrate that flaxseed cake-enriched sourdough bread can represent a potential \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**Quantitative Parameters** & **Overall Pleasantness** \\ \hline Bread structure regularity & 0.66 \\ Alveoles dimension (Crumb) & 0.24 \\ Homogeneity of alveolation (Crumb) & 0.35 \\ Smell intensity (Crumb) & 0.73 \\ Wheat smell (Crumb) & 0.16 \\ Yeast smell (Crumb) & 0.14 \\ Pungent smell (Crumb) & \(-\)0.01 \\ Frankness (Crumb) & 0.75 \\ Salted taste (Crumb) & 0.59 \\ Acid taste (Crumb) & 0.46 \\ Bitter taste (Crumb) & 0.03 \\ Aftertaste (Crumb) & \(-\)0.15 \\ Springiness (Crumb) & 0.68 \\ Humidity of surface (Crumb) & 0.60 \\ Crumb residual after detachment & 0.47 \\ Resistance to chewing (Crumb) & 0.61 \\ Juiciness (Crumb) & 0.70 \\ Adhesiveness (Crumb) & 0.53 \\ Crispiness (Crust) & 0.65 \\ Hardness (Crust) & 0.51 \\ Smell intensity (Crust) & 0.81 \\ Salted taste (Crust) & 0.37 \\ Toasted taste (Crust) & 0.50 \\ Bitter taste (Crust) & \(-\)0.09 \\ Aftertaste (Crust) & \(-\)0.24 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 11: PLS regression calculated for all the quantitative parameters evaluated by panelists during tasting sessions and overall pleasantness. Strong correlations (values \(>\) 0.5) are highlighted in grey. vehicle for bioactive compounds, with the possibility of obtaining high-quality products with improved nutritional profile and desired health attributes. These observations are in accordance with previous studies that investigated the effect of fortification with flaxseed cake on baker's yeast leavened bread. [PERSON] et al. [59] found that total phenols, total flavonoids, and antioxidant capacity significantly increased in cookies prepared with flaxseed cake and roasted flaxseed cake. Similarly, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [60], in a study aimed to evaluate the effect of flaxseed on bread-making quality and the antioxidant properties of breads, found that both total phenols and flavonoids significantly increased with the level of fortification with flaxseed and the highest values were found in bread containing 8% flaxseed. Similar results were observed for DPPH and TEAC. In relation to fatty acid composition, our results showed that the addition of flaxseed cake determined a change of the fatty acids composition in the final products. [PERSON] et al. [61] obtained the highest PUFA to SFA ratio for a whole wheat bread enriched with a combination of 4% ground flaxseed, 8% whole flaxseed, and 5% flaxseed oil. The considerable increase in alpha-linolenic acid (n-3) share in the fatty acids pool was also found in bread and gluten-free bread baked with the 10%-13% addition of ground flaxseeds [62; 63]. According to Table 4, a significant decrease in the n-6:n-3 ratio was also observed together with the raise of the fortification level. These ratios are very encouraging, since a n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio ranging from 3:1 to 1:1 is recommended [64]. Recent studies have shown that dietary imbalance of the n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio, with values between 10 and 25 [65; 66], can affect human health, as it can lead to increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-\(\alpha\)), interleukin-1 (IL-1), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and thus excessively augment inflammation [67; 68]. On the other hand, the higher content of unsaturated fatty acids in the fortified breads could cause their chemical and sensorial deterioration during storage.