Effect of cooking, 24 h cold storage, microwave reheating, and particle size onin vitrostarch digestibility of dry and fresh pasta

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of preparation method and particle size on digestion of starch in fresh and dry pasta types. Pasta samples were boiled, refrigerated and re-heated, with samples collected after each stage, and then prepared as small (2 mm) and large (5 mm) particles for subsequent starch digestibility testing and logarithm of slope analyses. There were significant main effects of particle size (F-1,F-24= 568.895,p< 0.001,eta(2)(p)= 0.960) and processing treatment (F-2,F-24= 19.897,p< 0.001 eta(2)(p)= 0.624) on starch digestibility overall, however the main effect of pasta type was not significant at thep< 0.05 level (F-1,F-24= 2.978,p= 0.097,eta(2)(p)= 0.110). Particle size had the largest effect on digestibility, and the extent of starch digestion was at least 50% lower in samples prepared as large particles compared with small particles. The most digestible sample was the boiled fresh-type pasta prepared as small particles (C-infinity= 57.9%) and cold storage alone and/or with subsequent re-heating significantly reduced the extent of digestion in this sample to similar to 40.6%. In the dry pasta type, processing treatment had no significant effects on starch digestibility. The rate constant,k, was not significantly altered by processing treatment or pasta type (k= 0.0275 min(-1), mean of all samples). These findings suggest that cold-storage and re-heating treatments have limited potential to impact on glycaemic responses and highlight the importance of masticated particle size as a potential rate-limiting factor in digestibility studies.