Macaroni Formulation Fortified with Potato Fiber and Dunaliela Salina Alga Powder and Determination of Physical, Chemical and Sensory Properties

In recent years, using additives and different components to improve quality and nutritional properties of macaroni have been used. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of enrichment with Dunaliella salina microalgae powder and potato fiber on physicochemical and sensory properties of macaroni. For this purpose, different levels of these two additives (0.5, 1, 1.5% and combined concentration) were replaced with semolina flour in macaroni formulation and physicochemical and sensory characteristics of all treatments were studied. The obtained results of chemical tests showed that increasing potato fiber and algae powder levels in formulation lead to increase the content of moisture, ash and fiber in samples. By adding the different levels of potato fiber in macaroni, protein content significantly was decreased (p<0.05), but, significant changes in the amount of fat was not observed. However, by increasing the D. salina algae powder in formulation, the amounts of protein and fat were increased. The hardness amounts of samples containing different levels of potato fiber and algae powder were lower when compared with those of control sample. By adding potato fiber to macaroni formulation, the L* amount was increase, but the b* amount was decreased. The results of sensory evaluation of macaroni samples showed that treatments containing high levels of D. salina algae powder (1 and 1.5%) had lower scores than other samples. With the exception of the samples containing 1 and 1.5% alae powder, other examples in terms of sensory characteristics were acceptable. From the above results it can be concluded that the addition of D. salina algae and potato fiber to macaroni improved the cooking property and nutritional quality of the macaroni products. Finally, the combined sample containing 0.5% potato fiber and 0.5% D. salina algae powder can be introduced as the best treatment in this study.