Comparison of colorimetric and spectrophotometric methods for colour determination in pasta

Product colour is one of the most important criteria for determining pasta quality. For pasta produced without eggs, pasta colour will depend mostly on the content of the yellow pigment in flour. Analyses were done with 12 samples of hand-made pasta without eggs. The yellow pigment content was determined by the standard spectrophotometric method, while the pasta colour (fresh shaped and dry milled pasta) was measured using the Minolta CR-300 colorimeter. The results obtained show that there is a correlation bet tween spectrophotometric determination of the yellow pigment content and the results of colorimetric measurement. The correlation coefficient between the colorimetric results of dry milled pasta and the yellow pigment content is higher than that between the colorimetric results of fresh shaped pasta and the yellow pigment content.