Developing and Testing Gluten-Free Spaghetti using Quinoa

The goal of this study was to make quinoa pasta only with flour and water using extrusion processing and to compare quinoa spaghetti with commercial spaghetti from Barilla containing gluten thanks to physico-chemical tests. First, using a KitchenAid, several tests were carried out in order to find the recipe with a suitable proportion of water and quinoa flour. After the moisture content has been found, three formulations with the same moisture content (38%) were selected using several percentage of pre-gelatinization (20%, 30% and 40%) in order to compare the influence of level of pre-gelatinization on dough properties. The pre-gelatinization was in order to improve the texture and the appearance of pasta because with 38% of moisture content without pre-gelatinization, pasta were too breakable and sticky. However, as regarding results on physico-chemical properties, pre-gelatinization had increased the percentage of cooking loss and the water activity. Moreover, the pre-gelatinization did not have an impact on moisture content, unit density, cooking time and the texture. Concerning the color, the pre-gelatinization had improved the lightness only for 30% of pre-gelatinization. The main problem with the pre-gelatinization was an excessive starch swelling which caused damage, an irreversible disruption of the protein-starch network. Moreover, the optimal formulation (30%) used to produce quinoa pasta with extruder, did not have good results. According to sensory analysis, the major problem with quinoa pasta was due to the texture, which was too breakable, with a lack of firmness, as well as the color of quinoa pasta.