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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Potato, Pulse and Small Grains Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #411169
Research Project: Identification and Characterization of Quality Parameters for Enhancement of Marketability of Hard Spring Wheat, Durum, and Oat

Location: Potato, Pulse and Small Grains Quality Research

Title: Detection and quantitation of adulteration in flour and pasta by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography combined with chemometrics

Author
item UNUVAR, A - Hacettepe University, Turkey
item SIMSEK, S - Purdue University
item BOYACI, I.H. - Hacettepe University, Turkey
item Ohm, Jae-Bom
item MANTHEY, F.A. - North Dakota State University
item KOKSEL, H - Istinye University

Submitted to: Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/29/2025
Publication Date: 1/30/2025
Citation: Unuvar, A., Simsek, S., Boyaci, I., Ohm, J., Manthey, F., Koksel, H. 2025. Detection and quantitation of adulteration in flour and pasta by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography combined with chemometrics. Food Control. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.143159.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.143159

Interpretive Summary: Food adulteration refers to the practice of intentionally degrading the quality of food by adding or mixing another substance to the food products. In the context of pasta production, adulteration is possible through the complete or partial substitution of durum wheat with a less expensive variety, such as common wheat. The undisclosed replacement of durum wheat with common wheat in pasta products is considered a fraudulent practice. Therefore, the development and implementation of effective detection methods are crucial for safeguarding consumer trust. This study demonstrated that an evaluation method based on protein composition analysis can serve as a powerful tool for detecting and quantifying the presence of common wheat flour in pasta samples. The findings of this research are expected to contribute to the development of a reliable method for detecting pasta adulteration in the future.

Technical Abstract: This study employed reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) to distinguish between durum (Triticum durum) and common (Triticum aestivum) wheat varieties. We analysed a diverse array of genotypes from Turkey (T.R.) and the United States (U.S.) using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). For the common-durum wheat flour samples, the root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) values were 0.172 for T.R. samples and 0.040 for U.S. samples, respectively. The U.S. samples demonstrated enhanced sensitivity in discrimination, likely due to their higher protein content. We observed a notable correlation between the origin of the wheat and the sample clustering in the graphical analysis. These results indicate that RP-HPLC effectively separates various wheat samples into distinct categories: durum-common, TR-US common, and TR-US durum. Additionally, the study aimed to detect and quantify common wheat flour in blended wheat flour samples, as well as to measure the farina content in pasta samples from both T.R. and U.S., using RP-HPLC paired with partial least square regression (PLSR). The coefficients of determination (R²) for predicting adulteration in flour samples were 0.895 for T.R. and 0.997 for U.S. The prediction R² values for pasta samples were 0.992 for T.R. and 0.985 for U.S. Regarding the limit of detection (LOD), blended flour samples showed values of 2.2% for T.R. and 3.6% for U.S., while pasta samples exhibited 4.1% for T.R. and 2.7% for U.S. These results underscore the potential of RP-HPLC, in conjunction with chemometric analysis, as a robust tool for both differentiating wheat varieties and quantifying adulteration in blended flours and pasta samples.