Authors
Title
Abstract
The objective of the research study was to determine the effect of 4-egg pasta manufacturing process on the degree of binding fat by polysaccharides and proteins contained in semi-finished and finished products. The pasta was produced under industrial conditions, on a C300 type production line, using a low temperature extrusion method. Additionally, for the purpose of comparison, a sample of pasta was manually kneaded and laminated. In the flour, dough, and pasta samples, taken at the successive production stages, there were analyzed the contents of free fat (extracted with diethyl ether) and total fat (extracted with diethyl ether after the samples underwent acidic hydrolysis). The content of bound fat was calculated based on the difference between the total and free fat content. During the research study, it was proved that, during the manufacturing of pasta, fat was intensely bound and the content of free fat decreased. Minor changes occurred as early as at the stage of forming pasta dough. Those changes became more intense at the successive stages of the pasta production process. Particularly intensive reduction in the content of free fat was found at the preliminary drying stage along with a simultaneous significant reduction in the content of moisture content in the product. It was reported that in the final product, 38% of total fats occurred as a bound form. At the same time, it was found that the content of free fat in the dried pasta was 1.83% of dry mass and it was much lower than that as recommended by the Polish Norm regarding the 4-egg pasta products. A significantly lower degree of fat binding (27 %) was reported in the manually kneaded and laminated pasta. The content of free fat in that product was 2.3 % of dry mass. The study results obtained imply that the content of free fat is not a suitable parameter to estimate the number of eggs in pasta. The free fat content in the final product depends not only on the amount of raw eggs added into the product, but, also, on the production technology applied.
Keywords
pasta flour, egg mass, pasta, fat binding, low-temperature extrusion, free fat, bound fat