Spirulina enriched gluten free quality protein maize (QPM) pasta as functional food

The gluten-free Quality Protein Maize (QPM) and pasta made from such grains would have far-reaching implications for achieving nutritional stability. As a result, the aim of this study was to see whether QPM combined with legume flours could be used to make gluten-free pasta (pasta without gluten protein). Furthermore, the effect of adding legume flours and spirulina to QPM pasta (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 %) on color, appearance, cooking, physical, nutritional and sensory quality was examined. The best-accepted combination of QPM (QPM flour 60 %, black gram flour 30 %, defatted soy flour 8 %, and guar gum 2 %-Q) and QPM pasta enriched with spirulina (QPM flour 60 %, black gram flour 30 %, Spirulina 6 %, defatted soy flour 2 % and guar gum 2 % -S) were compared to the control (100 % whole wheat flour-C). The functional and cooking parameters such as bulk density (0.54 kg/m3), swelling index (1.3 g/g), and cooked weight (11.0 g) of the spirulina pasta were slightly higher with a reasonable cooking loss of 7.6 %. The nutrients such as protein (21.6 %), calcium (44 mg %), iron (8.6 mg %), lysine (3.1 g/100g protein), and tryptophan (0.81 g/100g protein) were reported in the dietary composition of QPM pasta enriched with 6 % spirulina (S). Further addition of spirulina resulted in 16-fold increase in the carotenoid content.