Elsevier

Food Chemistry

Volume 88, Issue 1, November 2004, Pages 35-38
Food Chemistry

Maltulose and furosine as indicators of quality of pasta products

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2004.01.018Get rights and content

Abstract

Maltulose, an isomer of maltose, is detected for the first time in dried pasta samples. Variable amounts of this compound were observed in dried macaroni, noodle, spaghetti and vermicelli; however, fresh pasta samples had no maltulose content. These results could indicate that maltulose is formed during drying processes of pasta elaboration. Variations of maltulose in dried pasta samples (between 0 and 36.9 mg/100 g dry matter) could be due to the different conditions (time and temperature) applied during the drying process. Furosine contents of these samples were also determined. High values of furosine and maltulose in samples may be attributable to very high temperature processes (VHT-ST), whereas low values of furosine and absence of maltulose may indicate that samples were submitted to long processes at low temperatures (LT-LT). Low values of maltulose and high contents of furosine may correspond to low temperature treatments, followed by short time high temperature processes (HT-ST).

Introduction

Pasta is the most suitable food for satisfying nutritional requirements and safeguarding health at the same time (Costantini, 1985). Pasta is made up of a high content of carbohydrates (70.0 g/100 g of dried pasta), principally starch (63.0 g/100 g of dried pasta) and free carbohydrates. Proteins are also present in minor proportion (11.5 g/100 g of dried pasta) (Belizt & Grosch, 1992; Souci, Fatchmann, & Kraut, 1986).

Elaboration of pasta entails different steps: milling and dough formation, extruding and drying. The latter is a crucial operation for the quality of the pasta, since modifications of main components can take place. The traditional methods for drying pasta use low temperatures (29–40 °C) and long time of treatment (24–60 h) (LT-LT), but the use of low temperature treatments, followed by high temperatures (60–80 °C or 80–100 °C) and short times of treatment (5–12 h or 1–2 h) (HT-ST or VHT-ST) has been widely accepted (Dexter, Matsuo, & Morgan, 1981).

During the drying of pasta the Maillard reaction is favoured, due to the presence of carbohydrates and proteins, water activity (aw) reached by the product and processing conditions (Anese, Nicoli, Massini, & Lerici, 1999; Resmini & Pellegrino, 1994). Resmini and Pellegrino (1992) proposed the determination of furosine (ε-2 furoylmethyl-lysine), a product obtained by the acid hydrolysis of the Amadori compound of lysine (ε-fructosyl-lysine), as a useful tool for optimising pasta processing with respect to the physiological nutritive quality of the product.

Pasta processing can also produce changes in carbohydrate content, thus during mixing, extruding and drying phases, starch can suffer damage, releasing free maltose. The changes of free carbohydrates (maltose, glucose and fructose) during drying of different pasta products have been extensively studied (Lintas & D'Appolonia, 1973; Resmini & Pellegrino, 1994; Sensidoni, Peresseni, Pollini, & Murani, 1996), however the formation of maltulose has not been reported. Maltulose has been quantified in several foods, such as bread (Wasterlung, Theander, & Aman, 1989), honey (Swallow & Low, 1990), and liquid enteral formulas (Garcı́a-Baños, Olano, & Corzo, 2000), and the ratio maltose/maltulose has been proposed for the first time as an indicator to assess the heat treatment during manufacture and to monitor storage of enteral formulas (Garcı́a-Baños, Olano, & Corzo, 2002).

The aim of this work was to determine the presence of maltulose in pasta products and its usefulness alone or in combination with furosine as an indicator of processing conditions during pasta manufacture.

Section snippets

Standard

Maltulose was synthesised and purified according to the method described by Hicks, Symansky, and Pfeffer (1983). Furosine was acquired from Neosystem Laboratoire (Strasbourg, France) and trehalose was purchased from Merck (Darmstadt, F.R.).

Samples

Seven fresh pasta samples (two samples of spaghetti, one sample of macaroni and four samples of noodle) and 27 dried pasta samples (six samples of vermicelli, eleven samples of spaghetti, five samples of macaroni and five samples of noodle) from different

Results and discussion

Maltulose was quantified by GC analysis, using trehalose as internal standard and its identity was confirmed by GC-MS (DeJoungh et al., 1969). Hundred percent of this compound was recovered after two consecutive steps of extraction. The precision of the method (extraction, derivatization and GC analysis) was evaluated. A relative standard deviation of 6.3% (n=6) was obtained for samples containing 12.4 mg of maltulose/100 g dry matter.

Table 1 shows the minimum and maximum contents of water,

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