Groundnut Meal and Carrot Fortified Pasta: Optimization of Ingredients Level Using RSM

The present study was undertaken to optimize the level of groundnut meal, carrot juice and refined wheat flour for the development of pasta using response surface methodology. Different experimental combinations were designed using box-benken design of experiments considering 10–20 g groundnut meal, 14–30 mL carrot juice and 80–90 g refined wheat flour. Pasta samples with higher level of groundnut meal and carrot juice showed higher antioxidant activity and overall sensory acceptability. The samples with higher groundnut meal resulted in higher protein content. Pasta samples with higher amount of carrot juice showed higher rehydration ratio and lesser cooking time with low solid loss in cooking water. The food materials were optimized to obtain the best experimental combination for development of groundnut meal and carrot fortified pasta. Different levels of groundnut meal, carrot juice and wheat flour significantly affected the colour as well as cooking quality of pasta. The protein and antioxidant activity of pasta were increased with increasing level of groundnut meal and carrot juice in the sample. Optimized groundnut meal and carrot fortified pasta consisted of 17.64 % groundnut meal and 82.36 % wheat flour with 27.45 mL per 100 g formulation of carrot juice showing overall desirability as 0.849. This pasta sample required 3.49 min to cook with 4.71 % solid loss and rehydration ratio as 4.15 having 17.32 % protein content, 10.63 % antioxidant activity, 301.32 mg/100 g total phenols and overall sensory acceptability score as 8.7.