Effect of blending durum wheat flour with hard white wheat flour on the quality of yellow alkaline noodles

Yellow alkaline noodles (YAN) were prepared from durum and hard white wheat flour blends and evaluated for noodle color, appearance and cooked noodle texture. Raw noodle brightness, L∗, and yellowness, b∗, improved significantly with durum flour addition while significant increases in a∗ values were observed at both 2 h and 24 h. The very low noodle speck count of white wheat noodles remained constant over the 24 h period at any durum flour addition. Noodle bite, MCS, decreased with the addition of durum flour, resistance to compression (RTC) remained equivalent to the hard white flour control while an associated improvement in cooked noodle recovery (REC) was observed. The study indicates that addition of durum flour at even the 25% level, offers a viable product with improved colour characteristics, consistent RTC and improved REC textural attributes. Uniaxial stress relaxation parameters of cooked noodles significantly correlated with the empirical texture measurements.