No abstract

The effects of adding egg albumen or whey proteins to pasta made from parboiled rice flour were 17 investigated. Pasta quality was evaluated in terms of color, of furosine content, and of cooking properties (water absorption, cooking loss, and consistency at the optimal cooking time). The 19 surface heterogeneity of the cooked and uncooked materials was studied, and some starch properties 20 (pasting properties, starch susceptibility to alpha-amylase hydrolysis) were assessed, along with the 21 features of the protein network as determined by conditional solubility studies and with 22 ultrastructural features of the cooked products. Egg albumen improved pasta appearance, and gave a 23 product with low cooking loss, firmer and nutritionally more valuable than the other ones. In 24 albumen enriched pasta, small starch granules appear homogeneously surrounded by a protein 25 network. In the uncooked product, the protein network is stabilized mostly by hydrophobic 26 interactions, but additional disulfide interprotein bonds form upon cooking. Thus, addition of 15% 27 liquid albumen to parboiled rice flour results in significant improvement of the textural and 28 structural features of rice-based gluten-free pasta.

No abstract

Raman spectroscopy was used on 95 samples comprising mainly of uranium ore concentrates as well as some UF4 and UO2 samples, in order to classify uranium compounds for nuclear forensic purposes, for the first time. This technique was selected as it is non-destructive and rapid. The spectra obtained from 9 different classes of chemical compounds were subjected to multivariate data analysis such as principal component analysis (PCA), partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and Fisher Discriminant Analysis (FDA). These classes were ammonium diuranate (ADU), sodium diuranate (SDU), ammonium uranyl carbonate (AUC), uranyl hydroxide (UH), UO2, UO3, UO4, U3O8 and UF4. Unsupervised PCA of full spectra shows fairly good distinction among the classes with some overlaps observed with ADU and UH. These overlaps are also reflected in the poorer specificities determined by PLS-DA. Higher values of sensitivities and specificities of remaining compounds were obtained. Supervised FDA based on reduced dataset of only 40 variables shows similar results to that of PCA but with closer clustering of ADU, UH, SDU, AUC. As a rapid and non-destructive technique, Raman spectroscopy is useful and complements existing techniques in multi-faceted nuclear forensics.

The addition of pseudocereal flours to semolina is becoming more and more popular to improve the nutritional quality of the resultant pasta. The aim of this study was the evaluation of several properties of commercial pasta made from a mixture of buckwheat flour and durum wheat semolina. The characterisation of products, belonging to different producers, focused on the evaluation of chemical and physical properties, such as water uptake and mechanical properties before and after cooking and surface characteristics. A sensory analysis was also performed in order to evaluate firmness, resistance to breaking and overall acceptability. The results highlighted high heterogeneity of the mechanical properties, solid loss and water absorption among the samples. The great variability could be explained by the different processing conditions adopted by each producer, particularly by the procedure used to form and shape the dough into the final product.