Gluten-free fresh egg pasta analogues contain buckwheat.

Common buckwheat--Fagopyrum esculentum--has been a crop of secondary importance in many countries. Still, it has persisted through centuries of civilization and is present in nearly every country where cereals are cultivated. The main producers are China, the Russian Federation, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The species F. tataricum, Tartary buckwheat, is also produced in many areas of the world but generally is consumed or traded locally.

The crop is not a cereal, but the seeds are usually classified among the cereal grains because of their similar usage. The grain is generally used as human food and as animal or poultry feed, with the dehulled groats cooked as porridge. The flour is used in the preparation of pancakes, biscuits, noodles, cereals and the like. The protein of buckwheat is of excellent quality. It is high in the essential amino acid lysine, unlike common cereals.

Italian scientists are interested in the nutritional properties of buckwheat, and believe it could be used in pasta formulations. In particular, as buckwheat is devoid of gluten-forming proteins, it might be an ingredient in foods targeting celiac patients. The aim of research was to develop both fresh egg pastas integrated with buckwheat and fresh egg pasta analogues, classifiable as gluten-free, based on buckwheat and rice flours.

The researchers found that the loss of matter in the cooking water and weight increases during the cooking of buckwheat pasta were greater than those of a reference sample made of common wheat flour. As more buckwheat was integrated into the final product, the sample break strain was significantly less--a result of the progressive reduction in gluten content.

For the production of gluten-free pasta analogues, the researchers substituted wheat flour with rice flour, precooked rice flour or pregelatinized rice starch. The samples containing precooked rice flour gave the best results in terms of workability, break strain and weight increase during cooking. These samples were also produced on an industrial scale.

These commercial-level gluten-free fresh egg pasta analogues were tougher and less deformable than the laboratory-produced samples. These results were determined by a double thermal pasteurization treatment, which improves the structure of the product, and lessens the loss of matter when the product is cooked.

Further information. Cristina Alamprese, Department of Science and Technology, Foods and Microbiology, University of Milan, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy; phone: [phone]; fax [phone]; email: [e-mail].