Potential of curdlan use on the improving textural, cooking and sensory quality, and predicted glycemic index of high-fiber pasta added with watermelon rind

Abstract

Addition of watermelon rind powder into pasta formulation enhances dietary fiber and antioxidant contents of the fortified pasta but reduces its textural, cooking and sensory quality. In the literature, curdlan has been extensively studied to improve the quality of noodles but its use in the making of durum wheat semolina pasta and high-fiber pasta has not been considered. This study sought to examine the impacts of curdlan addition on the rheological characteristics of dough as well as on the textural and cooking quality, predicted glycemic index, in-vitro protein digestibility and sensory acceptance of high-fiber pasta. In this investigation, different dosages of curdlan were used in the making of high-fiber pasta fortified with watermelon rind and the resulting pasta quality was assessed. When the dosage of curdlan rose from 0 to 2.5% of the blend weight, the breaking strength and breaking distance of raw high-fiber pasta increased significantly. The cohesiveness, hardness, chewiness, elongation rate, tensile strength, cooking quality, and overall acceptability of the supplemented pasta were improved, while the adhesiveness decreased by 76% when comparing pasta samples added with 0% and 2.5% curdlan. The incorporation of curdlan did not have a considerable effect on color of the uncooked pasta samples. Nevertheless, the in-vitro protein digestibility was reduced with increasing curdlan dosage. Importantly, the predicted glycemic index of high-fiber pasta added with 2.5% curdlan was reduced by 1.5 times compared to the pasta sample without curdlan addition, highlighting the potential of curdlan as a food hydrocolloid for enhancing human health. Generally, curdlan was considered a prospective hydrocolloid to improve textural, cooking and sensory quality as well as health effect of the high-fiber pasta fortified with watermelon rind powder.