Probing the nanostructure of regular versus gluten-free spaghetti

High quality gluten-free food alternatives are increasingly sort after as supplements for people requiring diets with low glycaemic indexes. The challenge to come up with high quality alternatives. Structure at the nanoscale highly related to the texture, quality, mouthfeel of the final product. We have previously performed structural characterisation of starch granules in gluten-free and regular pasta using small-angle x-ray and neutron scattering as a function of cooking time. These preliminary results showed a loss of internal structure as a result of cooking, in particular for the granules in the gluten-free pasta variety, i.e. not protected by the formation of a gluten network. We would now like to perform a more in-depth study with contrast matching and SANS, in order to investigate further the effect of cooking time and the effect of salt in the cooking water.