Abstract:
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.) is a popular seasonal food crop grown
in Sri Lanka. During the jackfruit season a huge amount of by-products are
generated and they are mostly used as animal feed or ended up in land filling
without any usage. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the
potential of utilizing jackfruit by-products (core and rags; 3:1 w/w) flour in
manufacturing instant pasta. Proximate composition, physico-functional
properties and antioxidant properties of jackfruit by-product flour were
analyzed and compared with wheat flour. Composite flour mixtures were
prepared by replacing wheat flour with different percentages of jackfruit byproduct
flour (25%, 35% and 40% w/w). Sensory analysis was conducted to
select the best pasta prepared using a composite flour mixture using 30 semitrained
panelists. Proximate composition, physical properties and shelf-life
(by total plate count, pH and color) of the selected best product were analyzed.
Jackfruit by-product flour showed higher water absorption (8.77±0.06%) and
swelling capacities (46.00±5.66 mL) compared to wheat flour (1.74±0.14%;
17.35±0.21 mL, respectively) showing its potential to use in making valueadded
bakery products. Further, jackfruit by-product flour contained a
significantly higher (p<0.05) amount of crude fiber (13.00±1.13%) compared
to the wheat flour (2.24±0.23%). Total phenolic and flavonoid content of
jackfruit by-product flour were 40.9±0.02 mg GAE/100 g and 65.7±0.02 mg
QE/100 g, respectively. The pasta made from 25% (w/w) jackfruit by-product
flour showed the highest mean rank values for all the tested sensory attributes.
The developed product can be stored in Low Density Poly Ethylene (LDPE)
laminated packages at ambient temperature for 6 weeks. It can be concluded
that the jackfruit by-product flour can be effectively used to replace wheat
flour partially in the preparation of pasta products.
