Utilization of heat-induced curdlan gel to improve the cooking qualities of thermally sterilized fresh rice noodles

Thermal sterilization is the most economical and efficient method to guarantee the shelf life of extruded fresh rice noodles, but it often leads to a high cooking breakage rate and poor elongation at break of the noodles. The aim of this study was to improve the edible quality of sterilized fresh rice noodles through the addition of low concentrations of curdlan (0.38 %–1.13 %), which can form a thermal-irreversible gel to resist high-temperature sterilization. Compared with the control group without curdlan, the cooking breakage rate of sterilized fresh rice noodles with 1.13 % curdlan decreased from 16.85 % to 5.22 %, the tensile strain increased from 91.15 % to 147.05 %, and the microstructure was more dense and uniform. The results showed that adding the proper amount of curdlan is an effective strategy to improve the quality of sterilized fresh rice noodles.