The present work was developed with the objective of evaluating the effect of the addition of CO2 on the quality of the pasta type fresh mass. This product, for presenting characteristics wanted by the consumer, such as fast preparations and pleasant flavor, has been of increasing acceptance in the market. Besides, consumers have been more interested in products with no chemical additives. CO2 has been used in modified atmosphere and therefore, increasing the shelf-life of perishable products. In this work, a new technique was used for the addition of CO2, which consisted of carbonating the water that was used for the production of the pasta type fresh mass, in substitution to the direct injection of the gas CO2 in the packaging. To evaluate the technological a sensorial effects on this new technique of application of CO2 on pasta type fresh mass, the concentrations of 160 and 745 mg/L of CO2 were tested. The results showed that the technological characteristics of the product (cooking time, loss of solids, absorption of water and volume increasing) did not show alterations. On the other hand, in the sensorial analysis, improvement was observed in the quality of the final product, to which carbonated water was added. In the two tested levels, better acceptance than the control (0 ppm of CO2) was observed.
carbonic gas; fresh pasta; technological quality; sensorial quality