Enhancing Spaghetti with Upcycled Radish Leaves and Stalks

Abstract

Cruciferous vegetables contain important nutrients and bioactive constituents, yet radish leaves and stalks are commonly discarded during routine preparation and marketing. This study developed spaghetti (noodles) by incorporating dehydrated radish leaf and stalk powder into refined wheat flour and evaluated the resulting sensory, textural, colour and nutritional characteristics. Four formulations were prepared: a control without radish powder and three treatments containing 5% (R1), 10% (R2) and 15% (R3) radish powder. The product was assessed for organoleptic attributes, hardness, time taken to fracture, colour parameters, proximate composition, calcium and vitamin C content. Incorporation of radish powder increased fibre, ash, calcium and vitamin C levels compared with the control. The optimised formulation, R2, contained 77.54 g carbohydrate, 9.69 g protein, 0.64 g fat, 4.11 g dietary fibre, 355 kcal energy, 2.28 mg vitamin C and 47.94 mg calcium per 100 g. R2 also received the highest sensory scores for appearance (8.13 ± 0.67), taste (8.33 ± 0.6), aroma (8.53 ± 0.5), texture (8.03 ± 0.71) and overall acceptability (8.43 ± 0.5). Although R3 showed the highest fibre, calcium and vitamin C contents, it had lower sensory acceptability, greater hardness and a darker colour than R2. Based on the stated criteria for low-fat food, dietary fibre source and protein source, R2 qualified for these nutrition claims. The findings indicate that 10% incorporation of radish leaf and stalk powder can produce a nutritionally improved spaghetti formulation with acceptable sensory and textural characteristics while supporting the utilisation of an underused vegetable by-product under the tested conditions.