Study: Functional Pasta with Probiotics

Looking for a clever way to deliver probiotics to consumers? Then you’re in luck. A new study published in the Journal of Cereal Science examined a functional pasta using a durum wheat flour rich in polyphenols, with added barley beta-glucan and Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086 (as GanedenBC30 from Ganeden), to analyze and highlight the health potential of a functional pasta (2015;65:260-66). Results of the research illustrated GanedenBC30 left the characteristics of the pasta unaffected and displayed survival in efficacious levels at both five and seven minute cook times.

The settled debranning process of durum wheat produced a flour rich in proteins and phenolic acids. These raw material characteristics had a positive influence on pasta cooking performances as well as on its nutritional profile due to the high content of bound ferulic acid content (94 percent of total phenolic acids). The probiotic strain remained viable during the pasta-making and cooking processes, and its amount in cooked pasta (about 9 log CFU/100 g) would be considered sufficient to exert beneficial effects on consumers. The glycemic index of pasta measured in healthy volunteers was 59.7 and the functional ingredients addition did not affect the postprandial glycemic response of pasta in those volunteers. The information provided here suggests the newly developed functional pasta could represent a high-quality product for its suitable nutritional appeal and potential beneficial properties.

“This study is exciting, as it shows the distinctive formulation capabilities of GanedenBC30 in an additional product category that would be impossible for traditional probiotics," said Mike Bush, senior vice president of Ganeden.