July 21/Foggia, Italy/Food & Farm Week -- According to recent research from Foggia, Italy, "Spaghetti produced in a pilot plant were made from semolina and semolina blended with 10%, 15%, 25% or 50% of defatted soy flour (DSF) or toasted soy flour (TSF). Proteins of spaghetti were characterized by size exclusion-high-performance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC)."
"Soy globulins interact with semolina proteins during pasta making, forming polymers of high molecular weight. Of these, the sodium dodecyl sulphate-unextractable components were significantly higher (p<0.001) (up to 49% unextractable polymeric proteins) (UPP) than that of spaghetti made of semolina (24.6% UPP). The decrease of S-S bonds and the increase of -SH free groups in the DSF-semolina spaghetti, with respect to that made of only semolina, suggest that polymerization among the different classes of proteins involves interaction by sulphydryl residues in blends with above 15% of DSF and that soy proteins tend to disrupt own gluten S-S interchange system," wrote C. Lamacchia and colleagues, University of Foggia.