Bran is hygroscopic and competes actively for water with other key components in baked cereal products like starch and gluten. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of flour-water mixtures enriched with bran at different incorporation levels was performed to characterise the release of compartmentalised water. TGA investigations showed that the presence of bran increased compartmentalised water, with the measurement of an increase of total water loss from 58.30 +/- 1.93% for flour only systems to 71.80 +/- 0.37% in formulations comprising 25% w/w bran. Deconvolution of TGA profiles showed an alteration of the distribution of free and bound water, and its interaction with starch and gluten, within the formulations. TGA profiles showed that water release from bran-enriched flour is a prolonged event with respect to the release from non-enriched flour, which suggests the possibility that bran may interrupt the normal characteristic processes of texture formation that occur in non-enriched products. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.