Persimmon flours as functional ingredients in spaghetti: chemical, physico-chemical and cooking quality

The aims of the current work were to enrich durum wheat semolina spaghetti with two types of persimmon flours (from cv. “Rojo Brillante” and “Triumph”) obtained from persimmon juice coproducts, at two concentrations (3% and 6%), to evaluate their chemical composition, physicochemical properties and cooking quality and to asses if they can be detected as different from control wheat semolina spaghetti (without any persimmon flours added) by sensory analysis. Persimmon flour enriched spaghetti had higher total dietary fiber than control spaghetti, which allows applying the nutritional claim ‘source of fiber”. The addition of persimmon flours also increased their total yellow content (related to carotenoid content) in a dose-dependent way, which produced a higher yellow colour, typical and well appreciated by consumers in this type of pasta. Another positive characteristic of these spaghetti enriched with persimmon flours is that they need a short optimum cooking time in comparison with control spaghetti without it imply any significant change in their cooking quality. The type of persimmon flour and its concentration caused differences in colour of uncooked and cooked spaghetti, optimum cooking time, total organic matter, weight increase, fracturability and stickiness. Furthermore, 3% spaghetti formulations were not different from the control by sensory evaluation. In conclusion, the enrichment of durum wheat semolina spaghetti with persimmon flours allowed the valorization of persimmon coproducts and the production of spaghetti with similar cooking quality to traditional durum wheat semolina spaghetti, furthermore, the best results were obtained when persimmon flour from ‘Rojo Brillante’ was added at 3%.