Textural characterisation of lasagna made from organic whole wheat

Abstract

In the last years, trade of organic foods has risen significantly. Relevant quality studies for organic foods are generally related to environmental and health attributes/considerations. However, very few studies that analyse the traditional characteristics of food quality have been carried out. The importance of these studies is that they enable us to compare them with conventional food. Therefore, the objective of this article is to study the quality (texture and sensory properties) of lasagna prepared only with organic ingredients, without additives and through standard procedures of manufacture. Organic lasagna characteristics are compared with conventional white and whole wheat ones. The analysis of variance indicates the existence of significant differences in all the texture parameters, except for the cohesiveness. These differences show a possible interaction between the fibre and the gluten network. The relaxation curves show that conventional dough is more elastic than both the whole wheat samples; on the contrary, the viscous components are higher in whole wheat doughs, indicating the fibre-protein interaction. From the sensory analysis, the only parameter in which the organic pasta differed significantly from the conventional one was appearance. On the whole, these differences did not affect the acceptability of the product.