Alex Bechard, Adrienne Welcker, and Isabella Wheatley 11/18/2013

Transcription

1 PURDUE UNIVERSITY Flax Seed Pasta NUTR 453 Research Project Lab Report Alex Bechard, Adrienne Welcker, and Isabella Wheatley 11/18/2013

2 1 1. Introduction The overall problem that was focused on for the selection of this project was the stigma that is often associated with carbohydrate consumption and its caloric content without any perceived dietary advantage. Adding functionality to a food is currently one of the most popular food trends, as consumers are looking for more ways to improve their diets. Consumers want to obtain nutritional benefits without sacrificing the foods they enjoy and flavors they are used to. In order to increase the functional benefits of pasta, flax seed was added to a fresh dough as an egg substitute. (Ross 2011) Flax seed is recommended as a substitute by various internet sources and also the makers of ground flax seed products. Recipe substitutions by these sources suggest one tablespoon of flaxseed and three tablespoons of water are the equivalent to one egg. This gives the added benefits of increasing the amount of fiber within the product using flax, providing additional lignans, along with increased Omega-3 fatty acids content. (Westcott 2003) The substitution of flax seed within the pasta will also help reduce the cholesterol and sodium content of the product. The purpose of this experiment was to assess the effects of substituting flax seed for egg within a pasta recipe. Variables that were deemed relevant to the quality of the pasta product created were water activity, texture, taste and appearance. Water activity is important to pasta quality as this can affect how long the pasta takes to cook. Also, if the pasta is being made for drying and storage this can affect shelf-life and amount of time it takes for the pasta to air dry for storage purposes. Texture is an important quality attribute because, if pasta is either too hard or too soggy it will not be enjoyed or eaten. Pasta s ability to be cooked al dente or to a softer texture is important for the ability to cater to

3 2 consumer s tastes. Taste is important because a consumer will not continue to buy a product if it doesn t meet their taste expectations. Lastly, appearance is possibly the most important attribute for pasta quality because, before the consumer will taste or cook the pasta, they will first judge its appearance to determine if they want to eat it. The independent variables tested within this experiment are the ratios or quantities of egg vs. flax seed within a recipe. Three independent variables were tested; a whole egg recipe, a whole flax recipe, and then a recipe mixing half an egg and half a flax seed. This enables the experiment to determine whether the texture, appearance, and water activity of a typical pasta recipe can be replicated or matched using functional ingredients. After assessing these three variables it can then be decided whether more investigation needs to be done in regards to recipes with a more finely tuned ratio of egg to flax. 2. Methods A. Experimental Design The experimental design was created by obtaining a pasta dough recipe from a reliable source to get the highest quality recipe to reduce any consumer complaints from the recipe itself rather than the addition of flaxseed. This recipe was obtained from an Italian cookbook known as The Silver Spoon, (see references for complete information). Then the recipe was translated into grams and milliliters (ml) to increase the accuracy of the experimental recipe. The original recipe contains three ingredients which are; all-purpose flour (preferably Italian type 00), eggs, and salt. See appendix 1 for the breakdown of the recipe in grams and ml for each experimental variable. All of the ingredients should be mixed by the same person; the ingredients will be held at room temperature at least fifteen minutes before preparation. The ingredients should be mixed until all ingredients are blended thoroughly and appear as homogenous as dough can be. Once the dough is ready, it should be set to rest for fifteen minutes covered on the

4 3 counter. Once the dough has rested for its allotted amount of time it will be carefully rolled out, so it does not stick, using a rolling pin. When the dough is uniform it will be rolled out through a pasta cutter for a spaghetti type noodle. Once the noodles have been prepared as above, bring four quarts of water to boil with 3 g of salt added. The pasta will be added once a rolling boil has been achieved for 30 seconds consistently. The pasta will then be cooked for twenty minutes, two minutes is allowed either lower or higher depending on the pasta s ability to cook. B. Testing Once the pasta is made per directions it will be tested for texture, water activity, appearance and taste preference. The results of these data collections can be found in Table 1: Water Activity, and Table 2: Texture Analyzer. Taste preference will be done by a blindfolded taste panel, the evaluation sheet can be found for both this and appearance in appendix 2. The testing for water activity was done by putting one whole noodle of each variable in a plastic cup and inserted into the machine. Texture analysis was done at a standard setting and each noodle was assessed. To save the amount of product left for the taste panel the same noodle that was tested for water activity was also used for the texture analysis. C. Replications, Randomization, and Sampling The replications were consistent and the data and results represent this well. The consistency was obtained through maintaining the creation of the dough and the cooking process to apply the same treatments to all of the pasta variables. The sampling of people for the taste panel and appearance ratings was done by asking random NUTR 453

5 4 students, who were performing their own experiments, to first try the product blindfolded, and then after trying the product they were asked to rate the product on its overall appearance. The three variables were not marked with identification or placed in a particular sequence in order to keep controls random. 3. Discussion The overall results of this project show that if this recipe is used in a setting where more reliable, and thin pasta can be made - e.g. an industrial production setting, the functionality of flax seed substitution would not sacrifice the quality or physical properties of the product. Flax seed pasta could be a successful functional food product due to the benefits found in flavor, appearance, and nutritional content which are important and could be marketed to the correct audience. A product like this would require more marketing than a standard pasta product as functional foods are still not consumed as much as they should be. (McMillen) The take home message for this research project is that with commercial application and more consistent cooking equipment a high quality, tasty, and healthy pasta can be created for market. In these experiments our pasta roller broke halfway through the production of our pasta so we were unable to create a consistently thin and rolled out pasta. As a result we had to use rolling pins to get the dough as thin as possible to fit it through the pasta cutter. The equipment malfunction was a large source of error in our experiment because, noodle variance was considerable. Also, the mixing of ingredients was difficult which could have resulted in different ratios of ingredients in noodles. A third potential error that could have occurred for data gathering was that there was no setting that could be found on the texture analyzer for a pasta product, thus a standard setting was used to get the data.

6 5 Further work that could be done in applications of other types of pasta may involve ravioli pasta which might be an easier product to add further functionality with healthy ingredients. Industrial applications with drying techniques could be tested to see if the addition of flaxseed affects the ability to make the pasta shelf stable, and once this has been tested more commercial applications can be further researched. Marketing research would be useful to determine if those consumers who already purchase and eat functional foods would be interested in a functional pasta product. This would be useful as this consumer market might not be interested in functional pasta, but interest could be found in other flaxseed functional foods. 4. Results Table 1: Water Activity Results of Flaxseed Pasta Variables Trial Whole Egg Pasta 50% Egg 50% Flax Pasta Whole Flax Pasta Trial # Trial # Trial # Average: Figure 1: Water Activity of Pasta Variables

7 6 Table 2: Texture Analyzer Results of Flaxseed Pasta Variables Trial Whole Egg Pasta 50% Egg 50% Flax Pasta Whole Flax Pasta Trial # Trial # Trial # Average: Figure 2: Texture Analyzer Results of Pasta Variables * Table 3: Taste Sample Results of Pasta Variables- Trial 1 Panelist Appearance Rankings Taste Ranking Whole Egg (424) 50/50 (516) Whole Flax (385) Whole Egg (424) 50/50 (516) Whole Flax (385) Average:

8 7 Table 3: Taste Sample Results of Pasta Variables- Trial 2 Panelist Appearance Rankings Taste Ranking Whole Egg 50/5 Whole Flax Whole Egg 50/50 Whole Flax Average: Table 3: Taste Sample Results of Pasta Variables- Trial 3 Panelist Appearance Rankings Taste Ranking Whole Egg 50/50 Whole Flax Whole Egg 50/50 Whole Flax Average: Table 4: Averages for all Trials, Taste and Appearance Trial # Appearance Rankings Taste Ranking Whole Egg 50/50 Whole Flax Whole Egg 50/50 Whole Flax Average

9 8 Figure 3: Appearance Rankings for 3 Trials of Pasta Variables Figure 4: Taste Rankings for 3 Trials of Pasta Variables

10 9 5. References Flax USA. Organic Golden Flax. N.d. Cold Milled Golden Flax Seed. McMillen M. Survey: Americans Aware of Functional Foods, Don t Eat Them Enough. WebMD Health News. Phaidon Press The Silver Spoon Cookbook. 73. ISBN-10: Ross A, Bruce S, Blondel-Lybrand A, Oguey-Araymon S, Beaument M, Bourgeois A, Rezzi S A whole-grain cereal rich-diet increases plasma betaine, and tends to decrease total and LDL-cholesterol compated with a refined-grain diet in healthy subjects. British Journal of Nutrition. 105(10): Available from Academic Search premier. Westcott N. Muir A Flax seed lignin in disease prevention and health promotion. Phytochemistry Reviews , Appendices Appendix 1: Recipe Breakdown 100% Egg Recipe 225 grams Type 00 Flour 2 eggs 1.5 grams Salt 50% Egg, 50% Flax Recipe 225 grams Type 00 Flour 1 egg 7 g Ground Flax Seed 30 ml. Water 100% Flax Recipe 225 grams of Type 00 Flour 14 g Ground Flax Seed 60 ml. Water

11 10 Appendix 2: Sensory Evaluation Please taste each sample provided for you, blindfolded. Once you have tasted each sample, please tell the tester how you would rank the item for the following: 687 Texture: Taste: 453 Texture: Taste:

12 Texture: Taste: Rank the samples in order of preference. 1 being the one you like most and 3 being the one you like least Comments: