Characterization of Fresh Pasta Made of Common and High-Amylose Wheat Flour Mixtures

Abstract

This study aims to assess the main biochemical, technological, and nutritional properties of a few samples of fresh pasta composed of commercial common wheat flour blended with increasing percentages, ranging from 0 to 100%, of high-amylose wheat flour. Although the technological parameters of such samples remained practically constant, fresh pasta samples including 50 to 100% of high-amylose wheat flour were classifiable as foods with a low in vitro glycemic index of about 43%. However, only fresh pasta made of 100% high-amylose wheat flour exhibited a resistant starch-to-total starch ratio greater than 14% and was therefore eligible to claim a physiological effect of improved glucose metabolism after a meal, as according to EU Regulation 432/2012.

Environmental Profile of a Novel High-Amylose Bread Wheat Fresh Pasta with Low Glycemic Index

“…To cook 1 kg of fresh pasta, 10 L of boiling water laced with 100 g of table salt are usually used [ 52 ]. Since the default energy requirement is around 0.18 kWh for boiling 1 kg of water, and 0.05 kWh/min for cooking 1 kg of pasta and the optimal cooking time of high-amylose bread wheat fresh pasta was about 3.5 min, as previously determined according to the ISO 7304-1 method [ 16 ] by Cimini et al [ 9 ], the overall cooking energy need amounted to 1.975 kWh, of which (0.18 kWh/kg × 10 kg =) 1.80 kWh to boil 10 L of water and (0.05 × 3.5 =) 0.175 kWh to cook 1 kg of the fresh pasta under study. Moreover, in the European Union 83% of domestic kitchens use gas cookers, while the remaining 17% electric ones [ 38 ] by withdrawing natural gas or electricity from the national network or low-voltage grid.…”

“…Upon cooking, each gram of the high-amylose bread wheat fresh pasta absorbed 0.70 ± 0.04 g of water [ 9 ]. Default food loss rate at consumer was assumed to be 2% of cooked fresh pasta [ 38 , 52 ].…”

“…As reported previously [ 9 ], the preparation of such a novel fresh pasta was carried out by mixing HABWF with deionized water at a rate of 37 g for every 100 g of flour using a batch mixer for 8 min. The resulting dough was drawn in the form of fresh spaghetti, which was characterized by moisture, total starch and resistant starch contents of 32.6 ± 0.8, 77.0 ± 1.1, and 11.3 ± 0.3 g/100 g wet matter, respectively, an optimal cooking time [ 16 ] of 3.0 ± 0.2 min; a post-cooking water uptake of 0.80 ± 0.02 g/g; and a cooking loss of 0.086 ± 0.016 g/g, and in vitro glycemic index (GI) of 39 ± 1% [ 9 ].…”

“…Some bread wheat genotypes with an amylose-to-total starch ratio higher than 70% were obtained [ 3 , 4 , 5 ], and the resulting flours with RS content greater than 10% were used to produce RS-enriched foods, such as dried noodles [ 6 ], Japanese noodles, bread and puffed grains [ 7 ]. A derived high-amylose line of the bread wheat cultivar Cadenza [ 3 ] was grown in open fields in different crop years and, upon milling, yielded a high-amylose bread wheat flour (HABWF), which was used to produce RS-enriched fresh [ 8 , 9 ], and dry [ 10 ] pastas. Of these, the fresh pasta made of 100% HABWF was classified as a food with low in vitro glycemic index (39 ± 1%) and a resistant starch-to-total starch ratio greater than 14% [ 9 ], which allowed the physiological effect of improved glucose metabolism after a meal to be claimed according to EU Regulation 432/2012 [ 11 ].…”

“…A derived high-amylose line of the bread wheat cultivar Cadenza [ 3 ] was grown in open fields in different crop years and, upon milling, yielded a high-amylose bread wheat flour (HABWF), which was used to produce RS-enriched fresh [ 8 , 9 ], and dry [ 10 ] pastas. Of these, the fresh pasta made of 100% HABWF was classified as a food with low in vitro glycemic index (39 ± 1%) and a resistant starch-to-total starch ratio greater than 14% [ 9 ], which allowed the physiological effect of improved glucose metabolism after a meal to be claimed according to EU Regulation 432/2012 [ 11 ].…”