Effect of sheeting thickness on the processing quality of wheat-oat blended flour noodles

Abstract

The noodles thickness is dominated by sheeting, which is a crucial procedure for noodle processing. To improve the coordination between nutritional function and quality of noodles, we investigated the effect of the different proportion of oat flour (0%, 10%, 30% w/w) and sheeting thickness (ST; 0.8, 1.6, 2.4 mm) on the quality of wheat-oat noodles based on moisture distribution, texture characteristics and microstructure. We found that the free water content increased significantly (p < 0.05) with the addition of oat flour. For the noodles with 30% oat flour, the reduction of ST resulted in a significant increase in the strongly bound water content (p < 0.05). The mechanical force of sheeting disperses macromolecular polymers aggregated by non-covalent forces, which could consequently promote the formation of disulfide bonds. Meanwhile, CLSM also showed that the 0.8 mm noodles demonstrated a compact combination of protein and starch. These changes in moisture and structure caused differences in cooking and texture properties. In summary, mechanical force of sheeting improved the distribution of moisture among the β-glucan, starch and protein in wheat-oat noodles, thereby neutralizing the deficiencies of wheat-oat noodles qualities.