Reducing the cooking water‐to‐dried pasta ratio and environmental impact of pasta cooking

Cimini, Alessio; Cibelli, Matteo; Moresi, Mauro

doi:10.1002/jsfa.9299

Cited by 15 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…By referring to a standard pasta format (i.e., Barilla Spaghetti No. 5) as cooked using the so-called minimum energy consumption cooking method [4], the instrumental quality of cooked spaghetti was found to be practically independent of WPR in the range of 12 to 2 L/kg, while the specific electric energy consumption linearly decreased from 1.93 to 0.39 Wh g -1 , and carbon footprint and eutrophication potential of pasta cooking lessened by about 80% and 50%, respectively [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The pasta cooking system used was previously described [4,18]. It essentially consisted of a 3-L pan, a 2-kW 190-mm induction-plate stove, a digital scale with a load range of 0.6 g to 10 kg, a non-magnetic stainless steel S-shaped impeller mixer EURO-ST P CV (IKA®-Werke GMBH, Staufen, D), a piezo-buzzer, and a custom-made data logger based on an Arduino Nano 3.0 (ATmega328) board.…”

Section: Equipment and Experimental Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cooking quality of commercial spaghetti: effect of the water-to-dried pasta ratio

Cimini

Cibelli

Messia

et al. 2018

Eur Food Res Technol

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The consumption of two vital resources (e.g., water and energy) during home pasta cooking has so far received limited attention. The main focus of this work was to assess how the instrumental and sensory quality of cooked pasta is affected by the water-to-dried pasta ratio (WPR) using a model cooking system with three commercial brands of spaghetti. At WPR equal to 10 or 3 L/kg, the three sensory attributes of firmness, stickiness, and bulkiness, as well as the overall cooking quality, displayed no statistically significant sensitivity towards WPR. Cooked pasta water uptake, diameter, hardness at 90% deformation, and resilience were mainly influenced by the raw protein content of dried pasta than by WPR, while the cooking loss was regarded as approximately constant. By using the model cooking system that assured mild mixing of spaghetti to avoid their sticking during cooking, it would be possible to use 70% less cooking water and consume about 65% less electricity, the latter cutting significantly the climate change potential of home pasta cooking.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Equipment and Experimental Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooking quality of commercial spaghetti: effect of the water-to-dried pasta ratio

Cimini

Cibelli

Messia

et al. 2018

Eur Food Res Technol

Self Cite

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“…The diffusion of the eco‐sustainable pasta cooking procedure with WPR 2 L kg −1 previously assessed might cut the CF CG by 29% with respect to the reference case (RC). Use of organic durum wheat cultivated using the sequential four‐year crop rotation (tomato, durum wheat, maize and soft wheat) tested by Ruini et al enabled CF CG to be decreased by another 12.6%.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regional and European distribution of palletized pasta with an average delivery distance of 250 and 1500 km, respectively. Management of processing wastes according to different disposal scenarios such as landfilling or composting with an overall emission factor of 0.8 or 0.106 kg CO 2e kg −1 , respectively (see Table S7). Home pasta cooking using an induction hob under different cooking procedures, namely use of a high cooking water/pasta ratio (WPR) of 12 L kg −1 with water heating and pasta cooking both carried out at the maximum power rating of 2 kW, this being typical of the so‐called hurried cooker, or use of the eco‐sustainable pasta cooking procedure with WPR 2 L kg −1 and water heating and pasta cooking performed at 2 and 0.4 kW levels respectively . These cooking procedures resulted in a specific cooking energy consumption of 4.70 or 0.39 51 kWh kg −1 respectively.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mass of residual cooking water or pasta water is generally discarded into sinks. The contribution of pasta water disposal to the overall carbon footprint of pasta cooking was disregarded, since it was found to be insignificant with respect to that resulting from the energy consumption . On the contrary, by accounting for the overall Italian management scenarios for solid urban wastes in 2016, cooked pasta waste was assumed to be 28% landfilled, 20% incinerated and 52% composted or recycled, as shown in the electronic supplement (Table S6).…”

Section: Inventory Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cradle‐to‐grave carbon footprint of dried organic pasta: assessment and potential mitigation measures

2019

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BACKGROUND: In several Environmental Product Declarations, the business-to-business carbon footprint (CF CDC ) of durum wheat semolina dried pasta ranged from 0.57 to 1.72 kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2e ) kg −1 . In this work, the business-to-consumer carbon footprint (CF CG ) of 1 kg of dry decorticated organic durum wheat semolina pasta, as packed in 0.5 kg polypropylene bags by a South Italian medium-sized pasta factory in the years 2016 and 2017, was assessed in compliance with the Publicly Available Specification 2050 standard method. RESULTS: Whereas CF CDC was mostly conditioned by the greenhouse gases emitted throughout durum wheat cultivation (0.67 vs 1.12 kg CO 2e kg −1 ), CF CG was mainly dependent on the use and post-consume phases (0.68 vs 1.81 kg CO 2e kg −1 ). CF CG was more or less affected by the pasta types and packing formats used, since it varied from +0.3 to +14.8% with respect to the minimum score estimated (1.74 kg CO 2e kg −1 ), which corresponded to long goods packed in 3 kg bags for catering service. Once the main hotspots had been identified, CF CG was stepwise reduced by resorting to a series of mitigation actions. CONCLUSION: Use of more eco-sustainable cooking practices, organic durum wheat kernels resulting from less impacting cultivation techniques, and renewable resources to generate the thermal and electric energy needs reduced CF CG by about 58% with respect to the above reference case. Finally, by shifting from road to rail freight transport and shortening the supply logistics of dry pasta and grains, a further 5% reduction in CF CG was achieved. METHODOLOGYThe LCA was performed in compliance with the PAS 2050 standard method, 34,35 and involved the following stages: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation of results. The scope of this study was to assess the cradle-to-grave environmental impact of decorticated organic durum wheat semolina pastas, this conforming a business-to-consumer study in accordance with the PAS 2050.J Sci Food Agric 2019; 99: 5303-5318 Pasta packagingAround 90% of dried pasta is nowadays packed in plastic film bags and the remaining 10% in cardboard boxes. 22 In this study, dried pasta of the short (SP) or long (LP) type was packed in 0.5 kg wileyonlinelibrary.com/jsfa Post-consumer waste disposal Pasta loss at the consumer phase was assumed of the order of 2% of the quantity cooked. 22 However, according to research carried out by Last Minute Market, a spin-off from the University of Bologna (Italy), the cooked pasta wasted by Italian families would be about six times more than the above default value. Thus, up to 12% of what had been cooked 50 was wasted, probably because it J Sci Food Agric 2019; 99: 5303-5318

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Effect of cooking temperature on cooked pasta quality and sustainability

et al. 2021

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BACKGROUND Everyday pasta cooking has a large environmental impact. The aims of this work were to assess the effect of cooking temperatures (TC) that were lower than the water boiling point (TBW) on the main chemico‐physical quality parameters of two pasta shapes (i.e., ziti and spaghetti) cooked at the conventional and minimum water‐to‐pasta ratios, as well as their optimum cooking time (OCT), cooking energy consumption, and carbon footprint, by using a novel eco‐sustainable pasta cooker. RESULTS Once the effect of TC on OCT had been modeled in accordance with the Bigelow model, it was possible to estimate that the energy saved to heat the cooking water from ambient temperature to a lower temperature than TBW was smaller than the extra energy needed to complete the pasta cooking phase. After several cooking trials, the water uptake, cooking loss, textural properties, and thickness of the central nerve (as observed with a scanning electronic microscope) of cooked pasta were found to be independent of TC in the range of 85–98 °C. CONCLUSIONS By using smaller amounts of water (~3 L kg−1) and cooking at 85 °C with the eco‐sustainable pasta cooker, the energy consumption reduced from the default value of 2.8 kWh kg−1 to ~0.45 kWh kg−1 and GHG emissions to about one sixth of those resulting from the use of the average European home appliances. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry

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Reducing the cooking water‐to‐dried pasta ratio and environmental impact of pasta cooking

Cited by 15 publications

References 14 publications

Cooking quality of commercial spaghetti: effect of the water-to-dried pasta ratio

Cooking quality of commercial spaghetti: effect of the water-to-dried pasta ratio

Cradle‐to‐grave carbon footprint of dried organic pasta: assessment and potential mitigation measures

Effect of cooking temperature on cooked pasta quality and sustainability

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