The relation between wheat starch properties and noodle springiness: From the view of microstructure quantitative analysis of gluten-based network

Understanding the effect of starch properties on the gluten network during noodle-making will allow rational selection of ingredients. The microstructure and texture of dough sheets, dried noodles, and cooked noodles prepared by adding different wheat starches were compared. Increasing starch solubility and swelling power could reduce the compactness and homogeneity of the network in dough sheet. Lower swelling power and higher solubility of starch made the elastic modulus of dried noodles increase, leading to increasing branching rate along with decreasing average network width and length of cooked noodles. After cooking, noodles with increasing springiness showed higher branching rate of gluten network in dough sheet, greater elastic modulus of dried noodles, and lower average network length of cooked noodles. It was thus proposed that wheat starch with lower swelling power could enhance the springiness of noodles. The quantitative analysis of microstructure was an appropriate method to predict the noodle springiness.