Utilization of quinoa in pasta formulation

Designer and functional foods are health boosting approaches, playing a vital role for the provision of balanced nutrition as well as to combat various physiological threats. This is a new arena for research or competition among food industries for health promotion and disease protection. For the purpose, plant based functional foods are gaining popularity due to their therapeutic effects. Nowadays, pseudocereals like quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat are finding their way into our routine diets owing to their excellent nutritional, functional and dietetic properties. The present study was aimed to check the compositional and nutritional profile of quinoa and quinoa-wheat flour blends as well as its application in the development of pasta. Three blends were prepared 100% wheat (T1), 50:50% wheat & quinoa (T2) and 100% quinoa (T3). The bioactive moieties were extracted through conventional solvent extraction (CSE) and prepared by using aqueous methanol. Pure quinoa extract revealed highest TPC (total polyphenols) which was 275.15mg GAE/100g and DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) i.e. 25.21%. Further analyses on composite flours presented no gluten in T3. Bulk density and water activity trend was T1 greater than T2 greater than T3. Rheological aspects and falling number showed good results for T1, both the other treatments were not much suitable for bakery items due to poor rheology. In product development phase, these composite flours were employed for pasta development and subjected to different analyses at 0, 30, 60 and 90 days. Proximate analysis depicted the similar trend as that for the composite flours whereas, water activity, cooking loss, cooking time, swelling index, texture and peroxide value indicated inclining trend during storage for all the three treatments. Lastly, the hedonic response had shown best scores for T1, nearly same scores for T2 whilst, T3 was fairly liked by the consumers. For overall acceptance T3 got 6.25 marks which was lowest than the other treatments that was 7.42 and 7.82 for T2 & T3, respectively. Conclusively, it is deduced that 100% quinoa had best nutritional and antioxidant profile but product made out of it is not readily acceptable due to its unique taste from Pakistani consumer point of view rather partial substitution with quinoa may serve as a better option in response to mild taste and rheology with special reference to bakery items. So, further research for partial substitution in staple diets may serve the whole nation from urban to rural ranges by alleviating protein energy malnutrition and by improving overall health status.