Unveiling the effects of psyllium husk, mung bean protein, and transglutaminase on the quality characteristics of heat-moisture treated gluten-free rice pasta

Developing gluten-free (GF) pasta remains a technological challenge. Creating GF pasta using heat moisture treatment (HMT) modified rice flour, psyllium husk (PH), mung bean protein (MBP), and transglutaminase (TG) was studied. Increasing the PH concentrations (0.75, 1.5, 2.25, and 3%) increased firmness and hardness, while decreasing the cooking loss of cooked GF pasta, then 2.25% PH was combined with varied MBP concentrations (2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10%), with or without 1% TG. Pasta with a 10% MBP, both with and without TG, increased firmness, texture profile, protein content, redness, yellowness, and porosity of the pasta. However, TG further modified protein secondary structure and network of MBP-enriched GF pasta. MBP lowered reducing sugar release during in vitro digestion of GF pasta, though it had minimal effect on significantly reducing cooking loss. These results showed that PH and MBP with or without TG offer a viable approach for improving quality characteristics of heat-moisture treated GF rice pasta.