Impact of fermented wheat flour on the quality of dried white salted noodles: cooking, physicochemical, structural breakdown, microstructure and sensory evaluations

Abstract

This study investigated the physicochemical properties, cooking characteristics, structural breakdown, microstructure, and sensory qualities of dried white salted noodles with varying proportions of fermented wheat flour (FWF). The noodle formulations included 100% commercial wheat flour (100WF), 75% wheat flour with 25% FWF (75WF:25FWF), 50% of each (50WF:50FWF), and 25% wheat flour with 75% FWF (25WF:75FWF). Incorporating FWF reduced the optimum cooking time, cooking yield, pH and lightness values but increased the redness and yellowness values. Noodles with over 50% FWF exhibited greater cooking losses, increased breakability and lower textural and structural breakdown values. Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed that noodles with over 50% FWF had a weakened gluten structure with larger, more irregular pores. In contrast, 75WF:25FWF maintained similar cooking performance and structural integrity as 100WF, both featuring a compact and dense gluten network with smaller pores, which not only required significant effort to break down but also contributed to superior cooking performance and excellent texture. Proximate composition analysis revealed that 75WF:25FWF had lower moisture and higher fibre content. Despite lower sensory scores, the textural differences were not significantly noticeable. Incorporating FWF could potentially enhance the nutritional value of noodles by increasing fibre content while maintaining acceptable cooking and textural qualities.