Durum wheat pasta cooking: A combined assessment of the relevant quality, energy and environmental indicators

The scientific literature currently available on the subject has documented pasta cooking to be the second most environmentally impacting phase in the pasta life cycle after durum-wheat (DW) grain production. Those two phases have, therefore, priority in selecting the improvements that can be made, with the consequential effect of improving the life-cycle environmental profile of pasta products. Under this perspective, the authors tested a previously created electrical cooker for dry pasta from an ancient DW variety cultivated in Sicily, performing a combined assessment of the most relevant quality, energy, and environmental issues. The experiments were carried out both on the short and the long shape of pasta, applying alternatively a 10 and 3 L/kg water-to-pasta ratio. The study attained the proposed goal of proving whether the aforementioned cooker effectively reduces the energy-environmental burdens associated with the cooking of the pasta at issue, without compromising its total quality properties. Induction cooking systems need, however, for a larger share of renewable energy power, so that they can become even more eco-efficient than they are now. This is expected to grow in the next future because of the ongoing national and world transition towards renewable and cleaner energy sources. Therefore, the use of ecosustainable pasta cookers, such as the one investigated within this article, combined with the replacement of traditional energy sources with renewable ones, and the promotion of environmental education amongst stakeholders of the pasta sector can act as valid strategies for mitigating and improving the cooking environmental impacts.