# Partial Substitution of Wheat Flour with Palm Flour in Pasta Preparation
## 3 Results and Discussions  
### Cooking Properties and Texture Profile  
The optimal cooking time (OCT), the Loss by Cooking (LC), and the cooking yield (CY) were analyzed (Table 3). There was an influence of the addition of palm flour (\(p<0.05\)) in all tests performed on cooking properties. The OCT increased with the addition of palm flour. The CY decreased with the addition of palm flour only for the control, where treatments F5 and F15 were the same and the LC increased with the addition of palm flour. These behaviors have been observed with other types of pasta where vegetable flour is added, as is the case of studies by [PERSON] et al. [15], which worked with the addition of flaxseed flour in fresh pasta. [PERSON] et al. [21], in a study of fresh pasta with the addition of powdered Ginkgo biloba, found similar behavior to palm pasta. The authors explain that vegetable powder can prevent the absorption of water by the starch molecules, making the cooking process more difficult [21]. The cooking yield decreased with the addition of palm flour (\(p<0.05\)), attesting that the cooking yield of fresh pasta is also reduced as the concentration of flaxseed flour increases. This fact may be due to the presence of vegetable powder interfering with the relationship between water and starch, making it difficult to gelatinize [15]. The loss from cooking the pasta also increased with the addition of palm flour (\(p<0.05\)). The loss during the cooking process occurs due to the breakdown of the compact composition of the dough and the removal of soluble substances. In their works, [PERSON] et al. [21] also observed this behavior, explaining that it may be due to the release of soluble compounds from the added flours. However, the range of values found for palm flour was greater than for flaxseed flour [15] and Ginkgo Biloba flour [21]. The increase in mass loss during cooking due to the addition of palm flour can be explained by the formation of a less efficient gluten network for retaining starch polymers [2]. Although it is known that the addition of hydrocolloids and the use of proteins such as egg result in improved pasta quality [22], in the present study, we observed that despite the presence of hydrocolloids in palm flour and the addition of egg to the formulation, cooking loss increased with the increasing concentration of palm flour. Nevertheless, the values observed in Table 3 indicate that only pasta with 15% palm flour exhibited a cooking loss greater than 8%. According to [PERSON] et al. [23], an acceptable cooking loss for desirable pasta of good quality \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l} \hline
**Variables** & **F0** & **F5** & **F10** & **F15** \\ \hline \({}^{*}\)OCT (s) & 317 \(\pm\) 14 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 373 \(\pm\) 6 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 435 \(\pm\) 4 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 493 \(\pm\) 10 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \({}^{*}\)CY (\%) & 66.7 \(\pm\) 3.5 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 51.8 \(\pm\) 1.9 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 44.5 \(\pm\) 1.8 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 51.8 \(\pm\) 2.6 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ \({}^{*}\)LC (\%) & 3.3 \(\pm\) 0.4 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 4.0 \(\pm\) 0.3 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 7.6 \(\pm\) 1.5 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 9.1 \(\pm\) 0.5 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ Hardness (kg) & 5.22 \(\pm\) 0.16 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 6.29 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 6.80 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 8.39 \(\pm\) 0.23 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ Adhesiveness (kg s) & \(-\)0.60 \(\pm\) 0.14 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(-\)0.24 \(\pm\) 0.03 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(-\)0.30 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(-\)0.18 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ Chewability (kg) & 3.89 \(\pm\) 0.08 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 5.81 \(\pm\) 0.23 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 5.51 \(\pm\) 0.33 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 7.75 \(\pm\) 0.18 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline \end{tabular}  
\({}^{\text{Means followed by the same letter (a-d) in the columns, do not differ according to [PERSON]’s test at 5% probability.}\)  
\({}^{*}\)OCT is the optimal cooking time, CY is the cooking yield, and LC is the loss by cooking.  
\end{table}