Use of purple durum wheat to produce naturally functional fresh and dry pasta

• Antioxidants in flours and pasta of purple and yellow durum wheat were evaluated.
• Stone milling preserves higher anthocyanin and carotenoid contents in the pasta.
• Fresh pasta retains the major pigments compared to dried pasta.
• The purple durum wheat pasta shows reduced in vitro glycaemic index.
• This is the first report on processing of a purple-pigmented durum wheat genotype.

In this study, the effects of different milling procedures (roller-milling vs. stone-milling) and pasta processing (fresh vs. dried spaghetti), and cooking on the antioxidant components and sensory properties of purple durum wheat were investigated. Milling and pasta processing were performed using one purple and one conventional non-pigmented durum wheat genotypes, and the end-products were compared with commercial pasta. The results show that the stone milling process preserved more compounds with high health value (total fibre and carotenoids, and in the purple genotype, also anthocyanins) compared to roller-milling. The drying process significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the content of anthocyanins (21.42 μg/g vs. 46.32 μg/g) and carotenoids (3.77 μg/g vs. 4.04 μg/g) with respect to the pasteurisation process involved in fresh pasta production. The sensory properties of pasta from the purple genotype did not significantly differ from commercial wholemeal pasta, and its in vitro glycemic index was even lower. Thus, it is possible to consider this genetic material as a good ingredient for the production of functional foods from cereals naturally rich in bioactive compounds.