Effect of aleurone-rich flour on composition, cooking, textural, and sensory properties of pasta

The pasta making potential of a recently developed, large-scale produced, wheat aleurone-rich flour (ARF) was examined using a laboratory-scale, dry semolina egg pasta model product. It was confirmed by the outstandingly high protein content (26.67 g/100 g d.m.) that ARF is concentrated to a certain degree in aleurone layer and/or in subaleurone cells. The cooked ARF made pasta (AP) had more than two times higher protein (12.72 versus 4.92 g/100 g) and ash (1.83 versus 0.71 g/100 g) content, greatly higher crude fat (0.52 g/100 g versus 0.0 g/100 g) and total dietary fibre (7.76 versus 1.70 g/100 g) content than the cooked conventional pasta (CP). Addition of ARF to the pasta product resulted in lower water uptake, higher cooked pasta firmness, higher tensile strength, and lower stickiness. The cooking loss of pasta did not change with addition of ARF. Sensory profiling showed darker, more intense, bitterer, and sourer taste of AP compared to CP. Consumer acceptance decreased with addition of ARF regarding texture, flavour, and overall acceptance. Acceptance of AP was significantly higher among assessors, who tend to buy non-conventional pasta products. The results suggest that ARF is more applicable in value-added pasta production than wheat bran fractions or whole-grain flour.