**2. Materials and Methods**

### *2.1. Bread-Based Amendments Preparation and Characterization*

### 2.1.1. Raw Material, Enzymes, and Microorganisms

Wasted white wheat bread (surplus from the production) was kindly provided by the industrial bakery Vallefiorita Srl (Ostuni, Italy). Bread, having the following composition: moisture, 12.08%; proteins, 12.89%; fats, 1.55%; carbohydrates, 70.82%; and dietary fibers, 5.21%, was ground into small crumbs (<1 mm), mixed with distilled water (65%), and homogenized to obtain the WB.

Veron® Mac, a maltogenic amylase used in the bakery industry and purchased from AB Enzymes (Darmstadt, Germany), was added to the bread homogenate for bioprocessing. *Lactiplantibacillus plantarum* H64, belonging to the Culture Collection of the Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences (University of Bari, Italy), was used as a starter for biomass fermentation. The strain was routinely propagated on De Man, Rogosa, and Sharpe (MRS) (Oxoid, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK) at 30 ◦C. When used for fermentation, cells grown until the late exponential phase of growth (circa 12h) were harvested by centrifugation at 9000× *g* for 10 min at 4 ◦C, washed twice in a sterile physiological solution (NaCl 0.9%, *w*/*v*), and resuspended in distilled water.
