Quality of spelt pasta enriched with eggs and identification of eggs using 13C MAS NMR spectroscopy

This paper deals with the characteristics of spelt pasta enriched with eggs. Eggs were added to spelt farina in the quantity of 0, 124 or 248 g/kg (equivalent to 0, 3 or 6 eggs, respectively). Post-hoc Tukey?s HSD test at 95% confidence limit showed significant differences between various samples. Relatively low coefficients of variation have been obtained for each applied assay (1.25-12.42%), which confirmed the high accuracy measurements and statistically significant results. Standard score analysis is applied for accessing the contribution of eggs content to spelt pasta quality. Maximum scores regarding quality (0.89) and chemical characteristics (0.70), have been obtained for 6 eggs spelt pasta formulation. It is also shown that the presence of eggs in pasta can be clearly confirmed by 13C MAS NMR spectroscopy. Simultaneous increase in area of peak positioned at 29.5 and 176 ppm is directly associated with the increase in the content of added eggs in the corresponding samples. Pertinent data point at positive contribution of eggs to the spelt pasta and also that NMR spectrum can be used in the egg quantity control.