Natural Additives in Wheat‐Based Pasta and Noodle Products: Opportunities for Enhanced Nutritional and Functional Properties

Abstract

Pasta products and noodles have been staple foods since ancient times in many countries all over the world. These cereal products are still increasingly popular worldwide for their convenience, nutritional properties, special flavor, and taste. Pasta and noodles are essentially the same type of food but differ in their raw materials and shaping process, as well as the people and regions in the world consuming them. Many additives have been developed and are being used today in pasta and noodle products for various purposes. However, due to lack of knowledge about specific uses for some additives, they are sometimes misused by manufacturers. This can lead to opposite technological effects instead and may even cause damage to human health. Due to consumer demands, interest now focuses on natural "green" food additives with broad-spectrum functions, high effectiveness, and low toxicity. In order to provide detailed references for noodle and pasta production, as well as to provide ideas for developing new types of these products, here we summarize the types of natural additives that are being incorporated in pasta and noodle products, mainly for quality improvement and food preservation.

Enrichment of Wheat Flour Noodles with Oat Flour: Effect on Physical, Nutritional, Antioxidant and Sensory Properties

“…The presence of several carbohydrates and numerous non-polar side chains components in flours may impair the water holding and affect the dough development (Kinsella, 1976;Sathe et al, 1982). The guar gum added plays a significant role as a thickener and also supports in enhancing the gluten structure which further contribute to the texture of the noodles (Li et al, 2014). The addition of GMS at defined concentration in noodles helps to slightly reduce the hardness and moderately increase in cohesiveness, gumminess, springiness and chewiness (Kaur et al, 2005).…”

“…The supplementation of guar gum supports to augment the water binding capacity of the noodles during cooking (Sanchez et al, 1995;Kulkarni et al, 2012). The salt added facilitates the protein network development, imparts a pliable mouth feel to noodles and also helps to prevent the microbial growth by inhibiting numerous enzyme activities (Li et al, 2014). The control and prepared noodles using supplementation of oat flour at different concentrations are shown in Figure 1.…”

“…Choo and Aziz (2010) noticed a prominent increase in protein content due to gluten incorporation into the noodles formulated by fortification of banana flour. The presence of excess amount of gluten also enhances the dough formation and also strengthens the protein network which improves the chewiness of the noodles (Li et al, 2014).…”

The Role of Wheat and Egg Constituents in the Formation of a Covalent and Non‐covalent Protein Network in Fresh and Cooked Egg Noodles

“…durum ) semolina by dough extrusion (Fu ). Eggs are included to enhance nutritional value (Li and others ), flavor (Alamprese and others ), and quality. The latter is typically evaluated in terms of color, symmetry, cooking quality (low water absorption and cooking loss), and texture (Oh and others ).…”

Effects of acidification on the extension of shelf life of Japanese wet-type noodles (woo-long noodle)

“…was attempted as a biological method to increase shelf life; B8 improved the quality of yellow alkaline noodles and extended the shelf life to 7 days (Saito, 2003). Natural antibacterial compounds from lemon extracts and traditional herbs and spices may potentially be useful as food preservatives to improve the microbiological stability of fresh pasta and noodles (Li et al, 2014).…”