Influence of Extrusion-Cooking Conditions on Corn Pasta Quality

Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and little offered about gluten free products (quality and quantity) represented a high obstacle for Egyptian celiac patients. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to modify a single screw extruder to produce gluten–free pasta (GFP) (tagliatelle type). The GFP was made from corn flour under screw rotation speed (N) of 10, 25 and 50 rpm at 40, 65, 90 and 115 oC of barrel temperature (BT). Extruder performance was evaluated as specific mechanical energy (SME) and expansion ratio (Er). The cooking quality of GFP as optimum cooking time (OCT), cooked yield (CY), swelling (Sw), cooking losses (CL) and sensory characteristics (appearance, colour, taste, mouth feel and overall acceptability) were evaluated. The better results of the GFP sensory evaluation were obtained at BT= 80 oC, N =25 rpm and Er ≈ 1.38 with OCT ≈ 3.3 min, CY= 196%, Sw = 210% and CL= 16.3%. All parameters were given a direct proportion with processing variables N and BT, except CL. Furthermore, it can be predicted cooking properties values for GFP by SME value using the following equation; SME » 1.8675 (Er) + 0.8037 » 0.0608 (OCT) 1.5984 » 8×10 -17 (CY) 6.7878 » 2×10 -9 (Sw) 3.494 » -0.0306 (CL) + 0.7877.