209 

 

Journal homepage: www.fia.usv.ro/fiajournal 

Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering,  

Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania  

Volume XVI, Issue 4 - 2017, pag. 209  - 215 

 

 

ENRICHMENT OF PASTA PRODUCTS USING BEETROOT 

*Péter SIPOS1, Márta HORVÁTH2, Cintia ADÁCSI2,  
Brigitta HORVÁTH

2
, Beáta BABKA

2
, Zoltán GYŐRI

1 

 
1Institute of Nutrition of University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary, H-4032 138 Böszörményi Street,  

2Institute of Food Technology, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management of 

University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary, H-4032 138 Böszörményi Street,  

*Corresponding author, siposp@agr.unideb.hu 

Received 19th October 2017, accepted 19th December 2017 

 
Abstract: Beetroot has numerous advantageous health effects due its chemical composition, such as 

fibres, mineral elements, vitamins and phenolic compounds. It has not only anti-tumour effects but its 

consumption is favourable for the cardiovascular system, too. It is used as natural colouring agent in 
several products. In this research wheat pasta products were made with 8 and 16% beetroot juice and 

pulp addition to evaluate that the advantageous nutritional effects of beetroot could be utilized in 

pasta production as well and the consumer’s opinion on these products. Besides the general physical 
parameters (dry matter content, drying water loss, cooking water absorption) total phenol content and 

flavonoid concentrations were measured and a sensory analysis was performed. It was found that the 

beetroot addition did not influence the most the physical properties of pasta as compared to the 
control, but the use of beetroot pulp resulted in a significant increase in the water absorption during 

cooking. Unfortunately the high polyphenol content of beetroot could not be utilized in pasta 

consumption. Although the dry pasta had significant total phenol content, the cooking led to serious 

leaching and the same value were experienced as for the control pasta. Despite these facts, this kind of 
product can be beneficial for the producers as the sensory analysis showed that the overall acceptance 

and the taste and texture were found to be advantageous for potential consumers. 
 
Keywords: beetroot, pasta products, fortification, antioxidants. 

 

 

1. Introduction 
 

Red beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) is grown 

all over the world and it can be consumed 

in many ways, such as canned vegetable 

and juice, but it is used more and more in 

the food industry in dried and frozen form 

as natural colouring agent in different 

products [1]. Besides, its health promoting 

effect it is more and more widely known, 

therefore it became more and more 

popular. Its health-benefiting compounds 

are both inorganic compounds (like 

minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, 

sodium, potassium, phosphorus) and 

organic ones like vitamins (biotin, folic 

acid, niacin, vitamin B6) and it contains 

high amounts of high soluble fibres. 

Beetroot is one of those vegetables, which 

contains large concentrations of bioactive 

substances, like betalain, nitrate, 

antioxidants and phenol [2]. 

Betalains are water soluble nitrogen 

containing pigments and the food industry 

uses it as a natural colouring agent. 

Betalains are claasified in two main 

groups: red-violet betacyanins and yellow-

orange betaxanthins, these two main 

pigments determine the colour of the 

beetroot variety. The antioxidant activity 

of betalains is well known, it is referred as 

being higher than that of the ascorbic acid 

[3]. Betacyanins have strong antitumor 

effect, being able to slow tumour growth 

and help treat prostate, ovarian and lung 

cancer [4, 5]. 

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Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University - Suceava 

Volume XVI, Issue 4  – 2017 

 
Péter SIPOS, Márta HORVÁTH, Cintia ADÁCSI, Brigitta HORVÁTH,  Beáta BABKA, Zoltán GYŐRI, Enrichment 
of pasta products using beetroot, Food and Environment Safety, Volume XVI, Issue 4 – 2017, pag. 209 – 215 

210 
 

 

Beetroot effects on the vasculature is 

attributed to its high nitrate content, and 

several reports indicate its potential for 

significantly reducing blood pressure in 

humans [6] and improves the results of 

athletes by the increase of O2 supply of 

muscles, as it was found in an experiment 

that the beetroot juice consumption made 

the results of swimmers better [7]. 

The red beetroot is a good source of fibres. 

Pectin is its water soluble polysaccharide, 

fibre that bypasses enzymatic digestion of 

the small intestine, but it is easily degraded 

by the microflora of the colon. Due to this 

aspect, it improves cholesterol and lipid 

metabolism and diabetes control and 

prevention [8]. Due to its antioxidant, 

antiinflammatory, anticarcinogenic and 

vascular effect, beetroot is very popular in 

nutrition. 

Pasta products are one of the most popular 

staple foods nowadays because they are 

easy to use, quickly ready to consume, can 

be combined with a wide range of foods, 

have a diversified appearance both by 

shape and size and can be stored for a long 

time. On the other hand, there are many 

criticisms against it because of its low 

nutritional value. Pasta products are rich in 

carbohydrates and therefore energy and the 

modern trends in dietetics suggest other 

side dishes instead of it. A trend in the 

development of the pasta products is the 

improvement of its nutritional value by 

addition of plant and animal originated 

health promoting components to increase 

its protein, fatty acid or mineral 

composition or fibre content [9-12].  

This study aimed to answer the question 

whether the positive effects of beetroot 

consumption could be utilized in the case 

of pasta products. Beetroot is used as 

natural colourant in these products but the 

question is open that its advantageous 

components can be useful in pasta products 

too. To answer this question we made 

wheat pasta products with different 

concentrations of beetroot juice and pulp 

and their phenol and flavonoid contents 

were evaluated by the main physical and 

sensory parameters. 

 

2. Matherials and methods 

 

Preparation of experimental samples 

Flour samples used for the evaluation were 

of BL 55 type commercial flour (white 

wheat fine flour with 0.55% ash content). 

The beetroot was also purchased from a 

local market. The beetroots were peeled, 

washed and shredded by a commercial 

juicer. The beetroot was added to the flour 

as pulp containing all the juiced parts of 

the beetroot and as juice when the solid 

particles were removed from the liquid 

part. In the case of pulp the ratio of solid 

and liquid parts were measured by 

laboratory scale and applied in their 

original ratios avoiding the differences 

resulted by the sedimentation of fibre 

parts.  

The control pasta was made using 70 g 

wheat flour, 30 g tap water and 1 g NaCl. 

The other samples contained 8 and 16% 

beetroot pulp or juice in the amount of 

dough, i.e. 8 or 16 g beetroot was added to 

100 g pasta, while the amount of water was 

decreased to 22 or 14 g, respectively. The 

preparation and molding of dough were 

done by hand. The short-cut pasta was 

dried at room temperature for 3 days 

avoiding the nutrient losses caused by the 

high drying temperature. 

The dried pasta samples were boiled in hot 

(100°C) water until they reached the ready-

to-eat texture and the time required for 

boiling was measured. 

 

Evaluation of pasta samples 

For the determination of drying weight loss 

100 g of pasta was separately dried and 

their weights were measured after drying 

by a laboratory scale. The drying weight 



Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University - Suceava 

Volume XVI, Issue 4  – 2017 

 
Péter SIPOS, Márta HORVÁTH, Cintia ADÁCSI, Brigitta HORVÁTH,  Beáta BABKA, Zoltán GYŐRI, Enrichment 
of pasta products using beetroot, Food and Environment Safety, Volume XVI, Issue 4 – 2017, pag. 209 – 215 

211 
 

 

loss (DWL) was determined using the 

following Eq. (1): 

 

DWL (m/m%)=   (1) 

where y is the weight of the dried pasta. 

Dry matter content was determined by the 

measurement of weight loss during drying 

to constant weight by the MSZ 20500/2-85 

Hungarian standard. For the cooking water 

absorption capacity (CWA) 10 g of pasta 

was cooked in boiling 400 ml tap water. 

After the pasta was cooked, it was rinsed 

by cold tap water, let to rest for cooling 

down and weighted by a laboratory scale. 

The water absorption during cooking was 

determined using Eq. (2):   

 

CWA (m/m%)=   (2) 

 

where x is the weigh after cooking and 

cooling and y is the weight before cooking. 

The acidity degree of pasta was determined 

by the MSZ 20500/2-85 Hungarian 

standard. Pasta samples were grinded 

under 315 µm particle size by laboratory 

grinder and 10 g was measured and added 

to 100 ml distilled water. After 15 minutes 

phenolphthalein indicator was added and 

this mixture was titrated by 0.1 mol/l 

NaOH until reaching pink colour. The used 

NaOH in cm3 is the acidity degree of the 

pasta. 

Total phenol content was determined by 

the method of Kim et al. [13]. 10 g of 

grinded samples were extracted by 100 ml 

of 80% aqueous methanol and it was 

filtered and 0.5 ml was measured and 2.5 

ml Folin-Ciocalteu’s reagent was added. 

After 5 minutes 2 ml 75 g/l NaCO3 was 

added and this mixture was rested for two 

hours in dark at room temperature. After 

resting, the absorbance of mixture was 

measured using a spectrophotometer on 

760 nm and the total phenol content was 

determined by a calibration line which was 

made from gallic acid. Total phenol 

content is presented as mg gallic acid 

equivalent (GAE)/100 g sample. 

The total flavonoid content was 

determined by the method of Meda et al. 

[14]. The same filtered 80% aqueous 

methanol extract was used as in the case of 

total phenol content. In a test tube the 

following was added in the following 

order: 4 ml distilled water, 1 ml extract, 

0.3 ml NaNO3 and five minutes later 2 ml 

1 mol/l AlCl3. The test tubes were 

completed to 10 ml by distilled water and 

the absorbance was measured at 510 nm. 

The total flavonoid content was 

determined by a calibration line what was 

made from catechin and the total phenol 

content is presented as mg catechin 

equivalent (CE)/100 g sample. 

Sensory analysis of pasta samples was 

performed by the MSZ 20500/3-1986 

Hungarian standard. The pasta samples 

were boiled and a five-member committee 

performed the sensory analysis. Four 

parameters: appearance, odour, taste and 

texture had to be evaluated and scored 

from 0 to 5. The values were corrected by 

weighting factors: 1.1 for the appearance, 

0.7 for the odour, 0.9 for the taste and 1.3 

for the texture. The final score is the sum 

of the corrected scores and the result of test 

report that the pasta is first class when this 

score is higher than 18, the product is 

classified into the second class when it is 

between 16 and 18. A preference order and 

opinion were also asked from the testers. 

 

3. Results and discussion 
 

The different kinds of beetroot added to 

the pasta did not influence significantly the 

dry matter content of the dried pasta 

products; the values ranged from 87.2 to 

87.7%. The lowest value was found in the 

case of control product while the beetroot 

addition increased this value in all the 

cases. The requirement on the moisture 



Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University - Suceava 

Volume XVI, Issue 4  – 2017 

 
Péter SIPOS, Márta HORVÁTH, Cintia ADÁCSI, Brigitta HORVÁTH,  Beáta BABKA, Zoltán GYŐRI, Enrichment 
of pasta products using beetroot, Food and Environment Safety, Volume XVI, Issue 4 – 2017, pag. 209 – 215 

212 
 

 

content of pasta products is 13% at most; 

therefore all the products meet this demand 

(Table 1). The other legal requirement on 

the quality parameters of these products is 

the acidity value: it has to be less than 5 

cm3. It can be seen in Fig. 1 that all the 

pasta products met this requirement too, 

but the beetroot addition increased the acid 

value. The 8% pulp and juice addition 

resulted in one and a half to two times 

higher values in comparison to the control 

product, but the 16% beetroot addition 

resulted in three times higher values. 

 

 
Table 1. 

Dry matter content, drying loss, cooking water absorption and cooking time of pastas made with beetroot 

juice and pulp addition 

 

 
Dry matter 

content, % 
Drying loss, % 

Water absorption during 

cooking, % 

Cooking time, 

min 

Control 87.3 27 226.60 11 

8% beetroot juice 87.7 27 223.38 14 

16% beetroot juice 87.6 30 222.92 17 

8% beetroot pulp 87.7 28 261.32 20 

16% beetroot pulp 87.7 25 259.52 22 

 

0,00

0,50

1,00

1,50

2,00

2,50

Control 8% beetroot

juice

16% beetroot

juice

8% beetroot

pulp

16% beetroot

pulp

A
c
id

 v
a

lu
e
, 

m
l

 
Fig. 1. Acid values of pasta made with beetroot juice and pulp addition 

 

The drying losses were also influenced by 

the composition. As Table 1 shows 8% 

beetroot addition did not lead to changes in 

water loss, 27 and 28% values were 

experienced and therefore almost all the 

added water was removed during the 

natural drying. In contrast, the 16% 

beetroot juice addition increased the water 

loss by 3% and the same amount of 

beetroot pulp addition decreased it by 2% 

in comparison to the control pasta. The 

composition also influenced the amount of 

absorbed water during cooking; the control 

and the 8 and 16% beetroot juice enriched 

pasta had 222 to 226% water absorption, 

but the absorption of beetroot pulp 

enriched the resulted values around 260%, 

probably due to the higher fibre content. 

The presence of beetroot had also effect on 

the required cooking time. The beetroot 



Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University - Suceava 

Volume XVI, Issue 4  – 2017 

 
Péter SIPOS, Márta HORVÁTH, Cintia ADÁCSI, Brigitta HORVÁTH,  Beáta BABKA, Zoltán GYŐRI, Enrichment 
of pasta products using beetroot, Food and Environment Safety, Volume XVI, Issue 4 – 2017, pag. 209 – 215 

213 
 

 

juice addition resulted in a moderate 

increase in the cooking time, while the 

addition of the beetroot pulp resulted in 

two time higher cooking times. 

The concentrations of total phenolic 

components (TPC) were also measured 

from the raw materials and the pasta 

products. The beetroot juice had 185 mg 

GAE/100 g TPC and the beetroot juice and 

the beetroot pulp had 128 mg GAE/100 g. 

The TPC of the control dry pasta was 28.4 

mg GAE/100 g and both the pulp and juice 

addition doubled it. Much less difference 

can be seen amongst the concentrations but 

we can state that the higher additions 

resulted in slightly higher concentrations 

and the use of pulp resulted in a little bit 

higher TPC. These advantages in nutrient 

value had been lost by cooking: the TPC 

varied from 7 to 17 mg GAE/100 g, 

therefore we can state that the TPC content 

of pasta products cannot be increased by 

beetroot addition, although the colour of 

the additive results significant change in 

the colour of the dry and cooked pasta 

(Fig. 2). The total flavonoid content (TFC) 

was also measured for the raw materials 

and the products, but while the beetroot 

juice and pulp had significant 

concentrations (185 and 128 mg CE/100 g, 

respectively), the TFC were under the 

detection limit for both the dry and cooked 

pasta products. 

 

 
 

Fig. 2. Total phenol contents of pastas made with beetroot juice and pulp addition 
 

 

 

The sensory analyses were made to 

determine how the consumers accept the 

products (Table 2). On average the 

products got 4.8 points from the maximum 

5.5 for the appearance, 2.94 from 3.5 for 

the odour, 3.82 from 4.5 for the taste and 

5.62 from 6.5 for the texture, what shows 

that the overall acceptance is good for the 

products. The average score for the 

sensory analysis is 17.2; this means second 

class products by classification. One 

product got higher values that 18 what is 

required for first class quality; the one 

made with 8% beetroot pulp. This was due 

its high values for appearance, odour and 

taste, but its texture score registered also 



Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University - Suceava 

Volume XVI, Issue 4  – 2017 

 
Péter SIPOS, Márta HORVÁTH, Cintia ADÁCSI, Brigitta HORVÁTH,  Beáta BABKA, Zoltán GYŐRI, Enrichment 
of pasta products using beetroot, Food and Environment Safety, Volume XVI, Issue 4 – 2017, pag. 209 – 215 

214 
 

 

the highest values. The pasta made with 

16% beetroot pulp addition scored 15.84% 

and was classified under the second class, 

because of its low scores for appearance. It 

is interesting to see that the control pasta 

got the lowest scores for taste and odour, 

therefore we concluded that the addition 

has advantageous effects on the main 

sensory values. When the testers were 

asked to make a preference order for the 

products, the highest position was achieved 

by the pasta made with beetroot pulp 

addition independently from the 

concentration (18 scores for both the 8 and 

16% addition), the third was the one made 

with 16% juice addition (17 score) and the 

forth is the one made with 8% addition (15 

score). The control pasta got only 7 score 

that meant that almost all the testers would 

prefer the least. The tasters found the pasta 

products made with beetroot addition have 

intensive taste what makes them enjoyable.
 

Table 2. 

Results of sensory evaluation of pastas made with beetroot juice and pulp addition 
 
  Appearance Odour Taste Texture Sensory value 

Control 4.84 2.8 3.42 5.72 16.78 
8% beetroot juice 4.84 2.8 3.78 5.98 17.4 
16% beetroot juice 4.18 2.94 3.78 4.94 15.84 
8% beetroot pulp 5.28 3.08 4.14 5.98 18.49 
16% beetroot pulp 4.84 3.08 3.96 5.46 17.34 

Average 4.8 2.94 3.82 5.62 17.17 

 

4. Conclusions 

 

The results show that while the beetroot 

pulp and juice addition in 8 and 16% 

concentrations significantly influences the 

colour of products the other physical 

properties are only slightly modified. The 

addition has only moderate effect or no 

effect on the moisture content and the 

drying loss (and not even on the acidity 

value) while the water absorption during 

cooking is increased by the fibre parts of 

the beetroot pulp. The expected nutritional 

effect that this antioxidant rich component 

would increase the nutritional value of 

pasta was not proved; although the dry 

enriched pasta had significant total phenol 

concentration thanks to the gentle natural 

drying, cooking resulted in decrease 

probably due to leaching. In the case of the 

total flavonoid content the enrichment had 

no effect on the flavonoid content of dry or 

cooked products. In addition to all of these 

apsects we concluded that the production 

of this kind of enriched products can be 

advantageous, because the consumers 

found them attractive and the sensory 

analysis proved that they can be 

competitors of traditional pasta products 

both in texture, taste and odour. They 

could consume it willingly and it can be an 

opportunity for the expansion of 

assortment. 
 

5. References 
 

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Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University - Suceava 

Volume XVI, Issue 4  – 2017 

 
Péter SIPOS, Márta HORVÁTH, Cintia ADÁCSI, Brigitta HORVÁTH,  Beáta BABKA, Zoltán GYŐRI, Enrichment 
of pasta products using beetroot, Food and Environment Safety, Volume XVI, Issue 4 – 2017, pag. 209 – 215 

215 
 

 

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	1. Introduction
	4. Conclusions