Pasta, not a junk food: researchers

Ludhiana, Nov 5 (UNI) Pasta is not a junk food as most people are made to believe.

In fact, dry pasta, mainly composed of carbohydrates, only contains only a small amount of fat but a good amount of elements like iron, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese and potassium, required by the body for growth.

''Pasta can contribute significantly to our daily dietary requirements'', according to Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) researchers H S Nagi, Baljit Singh and S Sharma, working at the department of Food and Technology.

Pasta contains upto 31 per cent manganese, 24 per cent iron, 16 per cent magnesium, 12 per cent zinc, nine per cent potassium and two per cent calcium.

''As with other cereal foods, pasta is considered good as a large proportion of carbohydrates is in the form of complex carbohydrates'', according to the researchers.

The raw material for pasta is Durum wheat which is far richer in carbohydrates than bread (common) wheat.Durum makes pasta a rich cereal food, the researchers observed.

According to the PAU researchers uncooked pasta should be mechanically strong and should retain its six and shape during packaging and transporting. It should be uniformly yellow in colour, which should be translucent and when cooked in boiling water it should maintain its shape with no splitting.

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