Influence of die size and drying temperature on quality of pearl millet based pasta

Abstract

An innovative approach is proposed to study the influence of die size and drying temperature on the quality characteristics of pasta made from blend of wheat semolina and pearl millet flour in the ratio of 50:50 having particle size of 425 μm. Initially, pasta of wall thickness 0.49, 0.91 and 1.33 mm was prepared and submitted to cooking time, cooking loss and textural properties. Observation indicated that pasta with wall thickness of 1.33 mm had poor cooking stability, texture and surface stickiness property than 0.91 mm and 0.49 mm thickness pasta. Pasta of 0.91 mm thickness had least cooking loss, cooking time and good textural properties. Further, quality of pasta dried at different drying temperature (50, 60, 70, 80, 90°C) was studied in terms of colour, cooking loss and hardness. L values (lightness) ranged from 39.89 to 31.13, decreasing (becoming darker) with increased drying temperature. Hardness for cooked pasta ranged from 10.58 to 13.06 N, with higher values for pasta dried at 90°C. Cooking loss ranged from 9.17 to 8.48 %. However, drying temperature showed non- significant (p>0.05) effect on cooking loss. Results pointed out that pasta dried at 50°C was lighter in colour, good texture and minimum cooking loss than the pasta dried at higher temperatures.