Manufacture and characterization of gluten-free spaghetti enriched with vegetable flour

The manufacture and characterization of gluten-free spaghetti based on maize flour and different vegetable flours (artichoke, asparagus, pumpkin, zucchini, tomato, yellow pepper, red pepper, green pepper, carrot, broccoli, spinach, eggplant and fennel) were addressed in this study. The screening of the vegetable flours showed that homogeneity, color, fibrous, taste and odor were the parameters that have most influenced the overall quality of the dry spaghetti. The spaghetti added with yellow pepper flour was chosen for further analysis because of its highest sensory quality; in contrast, it recorded low carotenoids content due to the high temperature of the drying process (cycle named as HTDC). Therefore, an optimization of the drying cycle was performed (lower temperature) on the yellow pepper flour (cycle named as LTDC) that resulted in an increase of the carotenoids content. Although the spaghetti with low temperature yellow pepper flour had a higher cooking loss and lower instrumental hardness when compared to the spaghetti made with only maize flour (CTRL) it however had a significantly higher protein and dietary fiber content. Moreover there was no significant difference in the amount of glucose released during in vitro digestion for this spaghetti sample with respect to the CTRL sample. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.