Optimization and characterization of multigrain pasta enriched with malted finger millet and lentil flour

Pasta is a popular dietary staple traditionally manufactured using durum wheat semolina. It is utilized due to its eminent functional properties for a stable pasta formulation. However, to overcome the deficient nutritional profile of durum wheat semolina, the utilization of non-conventional ingredients, including cereals, pseudo cereals, millets, and legumes, has gained widespread interest in the development of nutrition-rich pasta. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of incorporating malted finger millet and lentil on the nutritional, cooking and textural properties of pasta formulation. The Mixture Design Quadratic Model with five key variables, such as cooking time, water absorption, firmness, total shearing force, and overall acceptability, were used to optimize the multigrain pasta formulation. A total of 20 formulations were prepared and optimized using setting restrictions for the independent and dependent variables. The optimized formulation (70 % durum wheat semolina, 11 % malted finger millet flour, 16 % malted lentil flour and 3 % gluten) had a shorter cooking time with statistically significant(p < 0.05) improvement in the nutritional profile of the multigrain pasta. The optimized formulation had a 41.12 % increase in protein, a 213.8 % increase in ash content, and 52.36 % in crude fiber content in multigrain pasta as compared to control pasta. Furthermore, the optimized pasta showed comparable in-vitro protein digestibility, textural properties and sensory evaluation to the control pasta.