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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential quality of Kamut® (triticum turgidum turanicum) as an ancient relative of modern durum wheat for food preparation and Egyptian consumption.

The methodology included in this paper is based on quality evaluation of Kamut wheat of the Dashure-Fayume geographical origin physically, chemically and technologically compared to Beni Suef 1, Beni Suef 3 and Suhag 3, the most dominant durum varieties in Egypt. After that, producing a specific end product (traditional couscous) regarded the critical quality aspects in Kamut wheat.

The results obtained showed that Kamut grains had higher physical properties indicating higher milling yield potential. Besides, Kamut flour was remarkable with higher protein and oil content. The use of a farinograph for assessing the rheological properties of Kamut dough has proven a useful quality for its measured characteristics compared to the Egyptian durum varieties. The good physical and rheological properties, coupled with high protein content, validated that Kamut is a valuable addition to the Egyptian diet and suited for the production of pasta and/or couscous. The sensory attributes of traditional couscous were significantly (p < 0.05) highly acceptable to the panelists.

These results lead to valuable addition and improvement of the Egyptian diet which consider The Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy (SADS) towards 2030 in Egypt based on achieving higher rates of food security in strategic goods in regard to improve food quality and safety, especially Kamut wheat which produces high quality grains without artificial fertilizers and pesticides.

This study aims to provide international pasta marketers with a better understanding of how consumers perceive product value, which enables them to create and deliver value. The effects of COO, price, and content on purchase intentions are assessed.

Data were collected via the survey method in Romania and Greece. Using a random utility discrete choice model, the authors test five hypotheses.

Overall, Romanian and Greek individuals are less likely to buy US pasta; nevertheless, the likelihood that US or Italian pasta is purchased increases when this product is made from durum wheat versus soft wheat. Differences in purchase intentions due to age, gender, education, income, and nationality are also found.

The results have important implications for international pasta marketers, as it helps them to better understand the perceived pasta value and to position this product effectively in Greek and Romanian markets. Future studies should examine wider pasta market segmentation in the Balkans.

This study contributes to the value literature by providing a framework of perceived value of foreign food products. Also, addressing concerns expressed in the literature, this study examines the COO effects on purchase intentions in a multi-cue context, focusing on low-involvement food products such as pasta. Because individual preferences for COO vary widely, the need for empirical evidence to complement theory is critical, and this is the first study with regard to Greek and Romanian consumers' intentions to buy foreign pasta.

This study aims to investigate farmer preferences regarding sales contracts for durum wheat in Italy.

The authors consider that contracts are formed by an organisational entity that is in charge of transferring decision and property rights based on reductions in transaction costs. The empirical analysis presents a discrete choice experiment with three distinct models that was performed by a survey of 160 wheat farmers in southern Italy.

The results show that contractual terms affect the probability of both a contract being signed and allocating decision rights due to their effects on price, technology and quality.

This study provides some insights on which contractual attributes could support the wider use of contracts along the durum wheat supply chain in Italy.

The paper reveals that contracts are relevant not only to the coordination of agri-food chains because of price stabilisation but also due to their impacts on technology and quality strategies.

Estimates the output‐oriented and input‐specific technical efficiency in two samples of Greek, durum wheat farms – organic and conventional ones – using Kalirajan and Obwona’s stochastic varying coefficient regression model. Findings indicate that the organic wheat farms examined are relatively more efficient. Reasons may include lower profit margins and restrictions on inputs permitted, which may force organic farmers to be more cautious with input use. However, technical efficiency scores are still relatively low for both types of wheat farming. Therefore, considerable scope for cost reducing and farm income improvement may exist in both farming modes. This realization could prove crucial for the long‐run viability and the future course of organic wheat farming.

This paper aims to examine the effects of substituting durum wheat semolina (DWS) with high-quality cassava starch (HQCS) in macaroni noodle production.

The effect of substituting semolina with cassava starch in macaroni production at six levels, namely, 0, 20, 30, 50, 70, 100 per cent, and variation in hydration levels of 45, 50 and 55 per cent and their interaction were studied.

As substitution of DWS with HQCS increased from 0 to 50 per cent at 45 per cent hydration, amylose content increased from 15.91 to 22.79 per cent. However, beyond 50 per cent substitution level, the amylose content dropped significantly to 20.10 per cent. Yet, this reduction did not affect the extrusion ability of the doughs. Analysis of variance revealed that changes observed in the dough properties were not significant (p > 0.05).

Trial productions of cassava macaroni noodles under factory processing conditions need to be explored. Also, cooking trials and consumer acceptability studies need to be conducted to pave the way for adoption by manufacturers.

Dried noodle products enjoy widespread popularity because of their shelf life, lower glycaemic indices, simplicity of preparation and moderate costs. This study showed the potential of substituting DWS with HQCS with no adverse effect on the dough and macaroni noodle characteristics.

The adoption of the process described in this study would result in increased utilization of cassava, broaden existing food base and provide household food security for both rural and urban population.

This paper has shown the suitability of substituting DWS obtained from imported durum wheat, with HQCS: indigenous to Africa, for the economic benefit of macaroni manufacturers.

The prominence of wheat as the world's largest crop (in 1981 world production was almost 1.7 thousand million tonnes, of which about 40% went directly to human food use) owes much to its almost unique ability to be baked into bread. This ability is largely attributable to the physico‐chemical properties of wheat proteins, which enable a leavened dough to rise by trapping the carbon dioxide, produced during yeast fermentation, as discrete, small gas cells — a structure that is ‘set’ during baking. Another important type of food made from wheat is pasta and the suitability of wheat for this end use is also governed by the properties of wheat proteins. The suitability of wheats for other uses, such as cracker, biscuit and cake manufacture and domestic flour is also affected by these proteins.

Addresses whether the grain quality factors used by the Federal Grain Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture in determining the quality grades of wheat exported by the USA including test weight, dockage, moisture content, percentage of foreign material, percentage of shrunken and broken kernels, and protein content, are characteristics that influence the price of wheat for export. Using data on the transactions price for hard red winter wheat, hard red spring wheat, and soft white wheat and the associated quality characteristics, exported between January 1990 and October 1991 to 63 countries, finds that only the test weight and the protein content are characteristics consistently valued by the market.

During the last years, the Italian pasta chain has been strongly affected by some events such as CAP reforms in the durum wheat sector that have progressively reduced government intervention in the market and a case of anti-competitive practices against pasta makers was identified and sanctioned by the Italian Antitrust Authority. The purpose of this paper is to detect the presence of market power in the different phases of the Italian pasta supply chain.

The authors applied the “first-pass” test proposed by Lloyd et al. (2009) on a set of monthly price indexes series from 2000 to 2013 in order to estimate if market power exists along Italian pasta chain.

Estimated results suggest that market power exists in the Italian pasta supply chain. Precisely, the presence of market power is detected for semolina producers in 2000–2004, for pasta makers in 2005–2008 as already identified by Italian antitrust and, finally, for retailers in 2008–2013.

The method is a “first pass” test that only allows researchers to identify the presence of market power, but it is unable to estimate the intensity of this power.

The paper gives a contribute on estimation of market power in a food supply chain affected by CAP reform and antitrust intervention.

This paper examines bread wheat quality and its effect on vertical co‐ordination in the wheat supply chain. Wheat quality is defined by many different characteristics, which poses limitations on the effectiveness of industry grading schemes in meeting the quality needs of end‐users. Consequently, individual processors may have an incentive to segregate wheat based on their own quality specifications. The costs and benefits of wheat segregation are analysed using a simple economic model, and illustrated with a case study of supply chain management taken from the UK bread industry. Warburtons Ltd procures bread wheat varieties with specific intrinsic quality attributes from Canada using identity preserved supply contracts. The paper concludes that the benefits of wheat quality control will encourage millers and bakers to develop closer vertical linkages with wheat suppliers in the future.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality and sensory properties of cookies produced from wheat flour using avocado puree as fat substitute.

Cookies were produced from wheat flour using avocado puree as fat substitute in ratio 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. The formulation of margarine and avocado puree blends was done by using D-Optimal Mixture Design. In all, 20 samples were produced from each substitution level and analyses were done in triplicates to obtain mean values using standard methods. Means were separated by Duncan’s multiple range test, and significances were accepted at less than 5% confidence level (p < 0.05). Proximate and functional analyses were conducted on the flour samples, while cookie samples were subjected to proximate and sensory analyses.

The results of this study revealed that the values of loose bulk density, packed bulk density, oil absorption density, water absorption capacity, swelling power, solubility and dispersibility of the flours at p < 0.05 are 0.3–0.4 g/ml, 0.5–0.7 g/ml, 16.9%–94.0%, 39.7%–80.6%, 461.2%–618.2%, 6.0%–29.8% and 69.0%–82.8%, respectively. The moisture, protein, fat, total dietary fiber, total ash and carbohydrate contents of the cookies at p < 0.05 are 3.6%–16.7%, 6.5%–9.9%, 2.5%–19.2%, 1.7%–1.9%, 1.1%–3.0% and 65.0%–70.7%, respectively. The taste, color, crispiness, texture and overall acceptability of the cookies at p < 0.05 are 7.4–7.8, 6.9–7.5, 7.2–7.9, 7.3–7.7 and 7.4–8.3, respectively. The sensory scores showed that panelists preferred the taste, crispiness and texture of the cookies produced from wheat flour using avocado puree as fat substitute at varying proportion. The sensory characteristics of sample WF⁴ (100% avocado puree) were rated overall best in all the parameters tested followed by sample WF³ (75% avocado puree). Hence, this study established the possibility of producing cookies from wheat flour using avocado puree as fat substitute without a negative impact on the sensory characteristics and the consumers’ acceptability.

The cookies produced from this study are not meant for vegetarians because eggs were added in the formulations and recipes but could be valuable to ovo-vegetarians that may take food with eggs without restriction. The major challenge of this study was that avocados are very expensive in much of the world, so this is only suitable and viable where there is an excess of the fruit.

This study examined the use of avocado puree as fat substitute in cookie production. Effects of avocado puree on proximate composition and functionality of cookies produced from wheat flour were also determined. This approach was novel, and it will encourage the use of avocado for value-added in industrial food production.