Improvement effect of different protein powder on cooking characteristics of gluten‐free pasta and the establishment of quality evaluation based on principal component analysis

Summary Improving the edible quality and nutrition of gluten‐free (GF) products is vital for patients to improve their coeliac disease (CD). This study explored the effect of the addition of soybean protein isolate (SPI), ovalbumin (OVA), and whey protein (WP) on the cooking characteristics of rice‐maize‐potato (RMP) GF pasta and made a comprehensive evaluation of the quality of GF pasta. The addition of SPI at higher concentrations would seriously increase the cooking loss of GF pasta. In contrast, the addition of OVA and WP could improve the cooking stability of GF pasta. The amount of OVA and WP powder in GF flour was positively correlated with gelatinization and gel stability, and negatively correlated with cooking loss. Moreover, the addition of OVA to GF flour improved the chewiness, hardness, elasticity and tensile properties of GF pasta based on texture profile analysis. Furthermore, 13 GF pasta with different additions of protein powder were studied based on principal component analysis to evaluate the comprehensive quality of GF pasta. The consistent results of GF pasta cooking characteristics and their ranking in comprehensive quality evaluation verified the reliability of this method. This study provides a reasonable instruction for quality improvement of GF pasta and a theoretical basis for the comprehensive quality evaluation of GF pasta, which could facilitate the development of foods with high cooking characteristics and nutrition suitable for patients with CD.