Effect of wheat flour particle size on the quality of fresh white salted noodles

Quality of fresh white salted noodles (WSNs) made of wheat flour with three different particle size was investigated. Water distribution, free sulfhydryl, secondary structure, and molecular weight distribution of protein, cooking property, texture property, and organoleptic property of WSNs were analyzed to elucidate quality changes induced by different flour particle sizes. WSNs of fine flour (D90: 55.82 μm) had higher brightness and bound water proportion. WSNs of fine flour had long optimum cooking time (2.42 min), high cooking yield (175.63%), and cooking loss (13.44%), and it had high hardness (5,672.2 g) and chewiness (4,078.15). Microstructure observation exhibited that a stronger and more resistant network existed in the WSNs of the finest flour. Furthermore, the WSNs made of the finest flour has the highest score in sensory evaluation. Wheat flour with small particle size (D90: 55.82 μm) could provide a beneficial effect on the quality improvement of WSNs. Practical applications Producing finer wheat flour requires more energy, more equipment attrition, and more production costs. However, wheat flour factory tend to produce finer grain flour for Chinese consumers' preference for bright white wheat flour. In this study, three kinds of wheat flour with different particle sizes were prepared using milling, and their particle size were distributed in three ranges (D90: 103.0, 66.8, and 55.8 µm). It was found that wheat flour with small particle size (D90: 55.8 μm) had a higher water absorption rate and formed a more stable dough. The fresh white salted noodles of fine flour had a tight interior structure, high water absorption rate, low cooked breaking ratio, better texture performance, and the high total score in sensory evaluation. Therefore, fine wheat flour are more suitable for processing fresh white salted noodles.