Comparison of Commercial Gluten Containing and Gluten Free Pastas: Cooking Quality Parameters

Aims: Gluten-free food (GFF) consumers reportedly have problems with the lower cooking quality of gluten-free pastas (GFPs) compared to gluten-containing pastas (GCPs). This work is designed to compare the cooking quality of commercial GFPs and GCPs population wise for contributing to the resolution of the issue in the market.

Study Design, Materials and Methodology: Cooking quality parameters of 10 commercial GFPs (maize based and maize-rice based) and 10 commercial GCPs (semolina), namely optimum cooking time (OCT), weight increase (WI), volume increase (VI), cooking loss (CL), and their microstructures were determined.

Results: GCPs had shorter OCT, higher WI and VI, and lower CL than GFPs (P < .05), representing higher cooking quality. GCPs showed more consistent cooking quality compared to GFPs. GCPs showed more consistent cooking quality compared to GFPs. GFPs made of maize showed higher cooking quality than GFPs made of maize and rice mixture (P < .05). When considering the microstructure, GCPs has a smooth outer surface where the gluten network provides a framework that holds embedded starch granules. On the other hand, GFPs has a protruding surface where gelatinized starch provides a framework that holds embedded protein patches, which results poor cooking quality.

Conclusion: GCPs shows higher cooking quality compared to GFPs. They also exhibited a narrower range for cooking quality parameters indicating their more consistent behavior than those of GFPs. GFPs made of maize showed higher cooking quality than GFPs made of maize and rice mixture.

Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work comparing the cooking quality of populations of commercial pastas (10 GFPs versus 10 GCPs) and embodied the issue.