Journal of Food and Nutrition Research, 2021, Vol. 9, No. 4, 187-192 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/9/4/3 Published by Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/jfnr-9-4-3 Physicochemical, Sensory, and Cooking Qualities of Gluten-free Pasta Enriched with Indonesian Edible Red Seaweed (Kappaphycus Alvarezii) Enny Sholichah 1,# , Rima Kumalasari 1,#,* , Novita Indrianti 1,# , Lia Ratnawati 1,# , Ari Restuti 2,# , Aris Munandar 2,# 1 Research Center for Appropriate Technology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Subang, Indonesia 2 Fisheries Study Program, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, Serang, Indonesia # These authors contributed equally to this work. *Corresponding author: Received February 19, 2021; Revised March 26, 2021; Accepted April 06, 2021 Abstract Nowadays, gluten-free (GF) products have become a trend as a healthy food. Making GF pasta has its challenges because there is no gluten content in GF flour. Application of red seaweed (Kappaphycus alvarezii) as hydrocolloid to enhance the quality of GF pasta has been conducted. The effects of the addition of K. alvarezii puree (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40% of the total flour) on chemical characteristics (moisture content, ash, fat, protein, carbohydrates, total dietary fiber, and calcium content), physical characteristics (elongation, adhesiveness, cohesiveness, springiness, and color), cooking properties (cooking time and cooking loss) and sensory evaluation (color, taste, aroma, firmness and overall acceptability) were investigated. K. alvarezii was able to increase viscous-elasticity, calcium, dietary fiber, cooking properties, and panelists' preference of GF pasta. K. alvarezii can be used as an additive to improve physicochemical properties, cooking quality, and acceptance of GF pasta. Keywords: gluten-free pasta, Kappaphycus alvarezii, seaweed puree, hydrocolloid Cite This Article: Enny Sholichah, Rima Kumalasari, Novita Indrianti, Lia Ratnawati, Ari Restuti, and Aris Munandar, “Physicochemical, Sensory, and Cooking Qualities of Gluten-free Pasta Enriched with Indonesian Edible Red Seaweed (Kappaphycus Alvarezii).” Journal of Food and Nutrition Research, vol. 9, no. 4 (2021): 187-192. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-9-4-3. 1. Introduction Pasta products, including dry macaroni, noodles, and spaghetti, are the most popular foods globally and have become an international food. The International Pasta Organization (IPO) reports that pasta's world consumption increased during a lockdown and the export of pasta increased by 25% in 6 months [1]. Dried pasta is simple to cook, easy to store, and paired with any sauce and flavorings, making it a good, healthy, and "favorite" food in this challenging period. Usually, the best quality pasta products are made from durum wheat flour (semolina) even though many pasta kinds are made from common wheat or other flour enriched with some functional components. Nowadays, gluten-free (GF) pasta is being consumed by people with celiac and those who wish to exclude gluten-based products from their diet for health reasons [2]. GF products are mostly inferior in nutritional and low cooking quality to wheat products [2]. The process of making GF pasta has its challenges. There is no gluten content in GF flour (e.g., rice, tubers, maize, millet, sorghum, etc.), a protein found in wheat, causing the cooking quality and texture of GF pasta to be unsatisfactory. Gluten is an essential ingredient to build protein structure, which holds the starch in place and forms a protein network [3,4]. Gluten is a fundamental property to build dough's viscoelastic characteristics [4]. GF flours' viscoelastic characteristics depend on the starch component properties [5]. Some GF flours that have been reported to be successful in making pasta are amaranth flour, rice flour, millet flour, maize flour, modified cassava flour, quinoa flour, buckwheat flour, or a mixture thereof [6,7,8]. An additive may be selected to increase a cohesive mass in GF pasta. The alternative ingredients observed to emulate gluten's functionality are enzymes, proteins, and hydrocolloids [5]. Previous research used guar gum in noodles made from a mixture of modified cassava flour, rice flour, and maize flour. The results show that guar gum's addition provides positive effects on viscosity peak, breakdown viscosity, cooking time, and cooking loss of non-wheat noodles [9]. Seaweed is a unique source of valuable hydrocolloids that have significant importance in the food, medicinal, and biotechnological industries due to their functional properties. The addition of seaweed in the dough to produce noodles and pasta has been reported by some researchers. Seaweed can improve nutrition, dietary fiber, product quality, microstructure, biofunctional properties,