Fish Protein and Lipid Interactions on the Digestibility and Bioavailability of Starch and Protein from Durum Wheat Pasta

This research focussed on the utilisation of salmon protein and lipid to manipulate pasta’s glycaemic index and protein digestibility. Salmon fish (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) powder (SFP) supplemented pasta flour in amounts from 5% to 20% (w/w). Inclusion of SFP lead to a significant reduction in starch digestibility and hence the potential glycaemic values of pasta (experimental pasta being up to 143% lower than control values). SFP addition to pasta increased the release of phenolic compounds from pasta during both gastric digestion (179%) and pancreatic digestion (133%) in comparison to the control sample. At the same time, the antioxidant activity of the digested pasta was increased by up to 263% (gastric) and 190% (pancreatic) in comparison to durum wheat pasta alone. Interestingly, although protein levels increased with incorporation of SFP, the digestibility values of the protein decreased from 86.41% for the control pasta to 81.95% for 20% SFP pasta. This may indicate that there are interactions between phenols and protein in the pasta samples which affect overall protein digestibility levels.