Analysis of cooking quality, nutritional and organoleptic characteristics of pasta enriched with fresh and dried microbial biomass

There are ecological and environmental reasons to reduce the consumption of animal proteins. Alternatives are therefore required. Besides plant-based alternatives, microbial biomass from species such as spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) appear promising. Indeed, from a nutritional point of view, its high protein content and diversity together with high levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants makes it an attractive food.

Pasta is a widely consumed food product and fresh pasta market is growing to respond to the consumer’s willingness to consume less transformed and artisanal products. Also, as fresh pasta is a product with a rather simple composition and a quite high water content, it could constitute a relevant model for experimentation on food enrichment with microbial biomass. The fresh tagliatelle model was therefore chosen for this study. The tagliatelle recipes were formulated with dry spirulina biomass and with fresh spirulina biomass (77% moisture) from a single supplier and in different proportions (range from 9 to 50% of fresh biomass, corresponding to 2 to 12% of rehydrated dry biomass).

The culinary methods (food and cooking recipes) were established as follows: the ingredients are mixed and kneaded for 10 minutes. The mixture is left in the fridge for 30 minutes before being rolled out and cut into tagliatelle. Ten grams of tagliatelle are then cooked in 100 ml of boiling water.

The experimental approaches used to compare recipes formulated with fresh spirulina biomass or dry spirulina biomass were: (1) moisture preservation dynamic by measuring dry matter, water activity, weight increase and cooking loss; (2) texture profile analysis to determine the firmness, adhesiveness and chewiness of cooked product; (3) organoleptic parameters by instrumental methods: colour of raw and cooked product and sensory analysis (hedonic test) of cooked product ; and (4) analysis of the nutritional value by measuring the protein content of the formulations of the raw and cooked product. In particular, sensory analysis allows to determine the formulation preferences but also the consumer's acceptance of eating products based on microbial biomass.