Noodle Qualities of Fresh Pasta Supplemented with Various Amounts of Purple Sweet Potato Powder

Sweet potato is a nutritious, cost-effective and abundantly available food crop in Asia. In an effort to utilize sweet potato for food processing, the effects of purple sweet potato powder (PSPP)-supplementation on the quality of fresh pasta was determined. Results showed that PSPP-supplementation produced fresh pasta dark purple in color, attributable to the intrinsic anthocyanin content. Moreover, PSPP provided a higher amount of gelatinized starch, resulting in softer and more elastic raw fresh pasta; and the boiled fresh pasta showed a softer texture, as indicated by its hardness, rupture force and energy. However, PSPP-supplementation decreased the cooking weight gain of fresh pasta. Sensory evaluation rated the quality of boiled fresh pasta with 7.5% and 10% PSPP as more acceptable and equally acceptable as the control, respectively. Thus, this study suggests that PSPP-supplementation results in an acceptable noodle product, potentially increasing the utilization of purple sweet potato.