Functional Pasta Barley-Based: Weighting Flavour and Textural Properties onConsumer Acceptance
F. Sinesio*, E. Moneta, N. Nardo, F. Paoletti, M. Peparaio, and F.J. Comendador
Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione (INRAN) Roma, Italy
Consumer awareness about high-fibre diets has shifted food manufacturing towards fibre-enriched products. Burley grain is a rich source of soluble fibre (ß-glucans), important functional ingredients in the cereal food industry with recognised health– related benefits such as effects on the glycaemic, insulin and cholesterol responses to food.
Pasta is becoming a product worldwide consumed. The substitution of durum wheat with barley flour from varieties of high content in ß-glucans can be an effective way to increase the soluble fibre content. However barley pasta flavour and texture need to be tailored to gain hedonic acceptability. Pasta quality has to meet certain consumer expectations and criteria for colour, flavour, firmness, springiness, and to be non-sticky.
A weakness of the barley pasta is the springiness lessening, which is instead typical of durum wheat pasta. Therefore a research was undertaken on dried long cut pasta (spaghetti) (low and high temperature drying) enriched with barley flour at 10 to 30% substitution levels. The study consisted in monitoring barley pasta texture and flavour qualities and model the influence on consumers liking. The ultimate goal was to find the best balance between the ß-glucans contents by barley substitution and the sensory quality of barley pasta.
Descriptive profiling by a trained sensory panel was used to provide the general view of the perceived flavour and textural properties of the cooked pasta samples. Physical textural properties (tensile strength, elastic modulus and adhesiveness) of the cooked pasta were determined trough instrumental methods and compared with the perceived texture’s attributes. Finally, consumers scored the pasta samples for visual attractiveness, flavour and texture quality and for overall liking using nine-point scales.
Multivariate analysis showed the relationships between the latent structure of sensory data in a trained panel’s perception, physical measurements of cooking quality and consumers acceptance. The textural physical measures and sensory properties of springiness and stickiness and adhesiveness were sensibly affected , while no changes for firmness were noted, dependent only of the drying temperature. Consumer responses to overall liking and specific liking for flavour, texture and appearance allowed to identify the best barley flour substitution level among the tasted samples.
Supported by the Agenzia Regionale per i Servizi di Sviluppo Agricolo (ARSSA),
Abruzzo Region