Enhancing Spaghetti with Upcycled Radish Leaves and Stalks

Cruciferous vegetables are renowned for their rich nutritional profile, offering essential vitamins, minerals, and bioactive compounds with notable health benefits, including anti-cancer properties. However, radish leaves and stalks, despite being highly nutritious, are frequently discarded as waste. This study aims to enhance sustainability and reduce food waste by developing nutrient-enriched spaghetti incorporating radish leaf and stalks powder. The formulation included varying levels of radish powder: R1 (5%), R2 (10%), and R3 (15%), alongside a control (0%). Nutritional analysis demonstrated significant improvements in fibre, protein, and calcium content across all enriched variants, with R2 exhibiting the highest acceptability on the Hedonic scale. The optimized formulation, R2, contains 77.54 g carbohydrates, 9.69 g protein, 0.64 g fat, 4.11 g dietary fiber, 355 kcal energy, 2.28 mg vitamin C, and 47.94 mg calcium per 100 g. Notably, R2 meets the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) criteria for a low-fat food (≤3 g fat per 100 g) and qualifies as a source of protein (≤10% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA 2024) for various population groups, including adults, adolescents, pregnant women, and lactating mothers) and as a source of dietary fiber (≥3 g of fibre per 100 g). This novel spaghetti formulation presents a sustainable and nutritionally enhanced alternative to conventional pasta, aligning with dietary guidelines while addressing food waste challenges. The study showcases the potential of food innovation in advancing both health and sustainability, demonstrating the viability of upcycling food byproducts into functional, nutrient-rich products.