The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has tried its hand at pasta making and in the process discovered how to make the perfect spaghetti.
Principal Research Scientist at NSW DPI, Mike Sissons (pictured) said that in a world first, the Department joined with food scientists from the southern Italian University of Bari in Apulia, to analyse the Glycaemic Index (GI) of spaghetti made from speciality durum wheat with elevated resistant starch levels.
“Elevated resistant starch levels can improve insulin sensitivity, lower blood sugar levels, reduce appetite and provide various benefits for digestion,” Dr Sissons said.
“Tests of 10 healthy adults confirmed consumption of pasta produced from the speciality durum wheat was able to lower the GI,” he said.
“One variety of speciality durum, SBEIIa, showed a clear benefit and could be used to produce pasta with a lower GI than regular pasta.”
Dr Sissons said additional tests revealed the quality of pasta produced by SBEIIa was also acceptable to consumers and much more appealing than wholemeal spaghetti.
He said the speciality wheat offered the potential to alleviate lifestyle diseases, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, by producing higher levels of the starch amylose compared with normal durum wheat.
Dr Sissons said the key to the research team’s success was to modify the nutritional value of the refined wheat products, while retaining the sensory qualities and consumer appeal of regular pasta.
The NSW DPI and the Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences at the University of Tuscia in Viterbo, Italy’s research was published in the international journal Foods, which can be accessed at this PS News link.
