Improving the Nutritional and Functional Properties of Pearl Millet Pasta: A Review

Abstract

Pasta, generally prepared from durum wheat is extensively consumed worldwide. Apart from being healthy and convenient food, the other outstanding characteristics of pasta include, low glycemic index, low cost, ease of preparation, extended stability during storage with relatively easier preparation. For functional pasta, care must be given to ensure that the added ingredient should enhance the nutritional profile, have minimal impact on pasta quality, palatability and consumer preferences. This review paper presents an overview of the various processing aspects of pearl millet. This comprises recent information about the improvement in the storage period of pearl millet flour (PMF), development of pearl millet pasta and addition of functional ingredients to enhance its nutritional quality. It is observed that the keeping quality of PMF can be enhanced by adopting germination, roasting, fermentation, microwave treatment, hydrothermal treatment, and refrigeration. Development of complete pearl millet pasta is not possible; functional pearl millet-based pasta can be designed using composite flour, the addition of pulses, legumes, fruit and vegetable powder to increase the demand for pearl millet.