Developing noodles from US wheat varieties for the Far East market: sensory perspective

Abstract

This study was undertaken to better understand the noodle texture profile of fresh and wet noodle styles in Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia in order to meet their different quality requirements. Totals of 16 patent flour samples for Taiwan, and 18 straight grade flour samples each for Thailand and Malaysia, were milled from US hard white wheat varieties. Noodles were made with an Ohtake noodle machine using conditions specific for each of the noodle styles. A lexicon of 17 texture descriptors was utilized for texture evaluation by a descriptive panel. Noodle quality was evaluated by each country's noodle representatives. The Taiwanese raw noodles were characterized as the smoothest, springiest, and were highest in integrity of noodles. Thai bamee noodles were the hardest, most dense, most cohesive noodles and were also more in starch between teeth and toothpull. Malaysian hokkien noodles were the softest, least dense, cohesive and least sticky. The high and low texture quality samples determined by each country's noodle representatives were characterized by the descriptive panel and the important sensory attributes which defined texture quality of each country's style noodle were identified.