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Measurement of Color, Gloss, and Translucency of White Salted Noodles: Effects of Water Addition and Vacuum Mixing

¹Curtin University of Technology, G.P.O. Box U1987, Perth, W.A., 6845, Australia. ²Corresponding author. E-mail: v.solah@curtin.edu.au ³Dept. of Agriculture, W.A., Baron-Hay Court, South Perth, W.A., 6151, Australia. ⁴BRI Australia, P.O. Box 7, North Ryde, N.S.W., 2113, Australia.

Sensory evaluation showed panelists could detect small differences in gloss and translucency in boiled white salted noodles (WSN) but sensory evaluation requires significant resources. Methods for the measurement of noodle gloss and translucency in boiled WSN were developed and the effects of hardness, protein, water addition, and vacuum mixing on these visual sensory characteristics and color (as measured by CIE L*, a*, and b*) were investigated. Noodles derived from hard wheats at low flour protein contents were more translucent than noodles from soft wheat flour at low protein. This trend changed at the highest flour protein contents observed. Translucency of the soft wheat noodles increased to levels equal to or exceeding the translucency of high protein hard wheat noodles. Translucency of all noodle varieties increased as flour protein increased. CIE L* decreased, a* increased, and b* increased when water addition to dough increased from 30 to 35%, but there was no further effect on color when water addition was increased to >35% for raw soft and hard WSN. Boiled noodle translucency was significantly increased when water addition to the dough was increased from 35 to 38% and when noodles made from soft wheat flour were mixed under vacuum. Vacuum mixing significantly increased gloss of boiled noodles made from soft wheat flours.