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Quality of Fiber-Enriched Spaghetti Containing Microbial Transglutaminase

¹NSW Department of Primary Industries, Tamworth Agricultural Institute, 4 Marsden Park Road Calala, NSW 2340, Australia. ²Corresponding author. E-mail: mike.sissons@dpi.nsw.gov.au ³School of Science and Technology, the University of New England, Armidale.

The effects of transglutaminase (TG) on the properties of semolina dough and pasta cooking properties in durum-only and fiber-enriched pasta were investigated. TG was blended at levels 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1% of semolina weight with semolina and semolina-pollard (60% w/w) and semolina-guar gum (15%) mixtures. The addition of TG increased dough maximal resistance, making the dough inextensible at >1%. Optimum effects on dough strength were obtained at 0.5% TG; this dough gave the firmest and least sticky pasta. A more extensive and thicker protein matrix was observed in the TG pasta by confocal scanning laser microscopy, indicating more cross-links were formed, a finding supported by measuring percentage of unextracted polymeric protein. TG was unable to overcome the negative effect of 60% pollard on cooking loss or 15% guar gum on stickiness. Gluten was generally more effective than TG in restoring the properties of pastas with added fiber.