Micronutrient Enriched Pasta
摘要
Consumer awareness of nutrition rich food products have encouraged food technologists, nutritionists, and dieticians formulate nutrient-rich foods. Pasta lacks several micronutrients when formulated from conventional raw materials. Therefore, natural and chemical sources of micronutrients are used for enrichment or fortification of pasta making them a nutrient dense food product. A wide source of raw materials are rich in micronutrients that are legume flours, fruits & vegetables, dietary fibres, resistant starch, microgreens, animal ingredients and chemical sources as iron, zinc, vitamins, etc. incorporation of micronutrient enriched materials in pasta alters its functionality. Generally, chemical sources of fortificants do not affect the quality characteristics of pasta as they are added in very small quantities. Addition of natural sources results in reduction of optimum cooking time while an increment in the gruel solid losses also occurred. Apart from cooking qualities, other quality parameters are also affected such as rheology, color, texture, thermal properties, etc. Also, incorporation of micronutrients into pasta results in several health benefits.