The quality of functional whole-meal durum wheat spaghetti asaffected by inulin polymerization degree

The use of inulin in pasta improves the nutritional value decreasing the glycemic index in the blood afterpasta ingestion but it compromises the sensory characteristics in terms of elasticity, firmness, bulkinessand adhesiveness.Thus, in this work, the impact of substituting whole-meal durum wheat flour with inulin on cookingquality, sensory and textural properties, digested starch and chemical composition of spaghetti was inves-tigated. Two types of inulin at two different concentrations (2% and 4%) were adopted: inulin extractedfrom cardoon roots (CRI) (high polymerization degree) and commercial inulin (CHI) (low polymerizationdegree) produced from chicory. From the chemical point of view, the sample with 4% CRI showed thegreatest total dietary fibres content and the lowest available carbohydrates content. A global acceptablequality was also recorded in all the other technological and sensory properties of enriched pasta withboth types and both concentrations of inulin. The most feature of the work is that when CRI was addedto the dough, better results were recorded, thus suggesting that for pasta enrichment, the selection ofinulin with proper polymerization degree is a strategic factor for final product acceptance