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Assessment of Oriental Noodle Appearance as a Function of Flour Refinement and Noodle Type by Image Analysis

¹Paper 791 of the Grain Research Laboratory, Canadian Grain Commission, 1404-303 Main St., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3C 3G8. ²Author to which all correspondence should be addressed: dhatcher@cgc.ca

Fresh alkaline and white salted noodle sheets prepared from patent and straight-grade flours of the western Canadian wheat class Canadian Prairie Spring White (CPSW), Karma and Vista, were visually characterized by image analysis over a 24-hr period. In both cultivars, the number of specks increased with time although the actual numbers were significantly influenced by both detection size and sensitivity. Maximum speck generation was observed in Karma's straight-grade kansui noodle sheets, increasing from 12.9 specks/cm² at 1 hr to 58.0 after 24 hr. Lowest speck numbers were observed in Vista's patent white salted noodle sheets with 4.5 specks/cm² at 1 hr increasing to 5.6 after 24 hr. The image analysis system was able to show that in combination with a significant cultivar effect, both flour refinement and noodle type significantly influenced the number of discolored specks detected over time. Straight-grade flours yielded more specks than the patent flours, while salted noodle sheets consistently had fewer specks compared with their kansui noodle sheets at all time intervals. No differences were detected in the average size of the specks due to cultivar or noodle type in the patent flour noodle sheets. Noodle sheets made from Karma straight-grade flour had significantly larger specks than noodle sheets made from Vista's straight-grade flour for both noodle types. Patent flour kansui specks were lighter than their salted counterparts. Straight-grade noodle specks were darker than their corresponding patent flours, but this difference was significant only in the kansui noodle sheets. Specks of all noodle sheets were characterized by darkness distribution profiles that highlighted key differences between the wheat cultivar samples due to noodle type and flour refinement.