A methodological study of the hardness of cooked Chinese noodles based on the texture analyzer

Abstract

Abstract A generic instrumental analysis method, matched with sensory evaluation, for the hardness test of Chinese dried noodles after cooking, was established in this study. The cut and compression mode was compared at first, followed by an analysis of the hardness response curve obtained from cut code with three-stage. Then the reliability of this method was verified with 20 commercially available noodles. Results showed that the hardness difference between the two samples obtained using compression mode was only 0.087 %. In contrast, a 6.34 % difference was obtained using cut mode with the hardness value of 296.12 ± 6.10 g and 278.47 ± 12.22 g, respectively. Three parameters, including initial hardness (F 1), material hardness (K), and final hardness (F 2), were extracted from the shear curve to characterize the hardness of cooked noodles. A ranking difference of F 1, F 2, and K between 20 commercially available noodles was found, which illustrated various characteristics of cooked noodles. In summary, the cut mode was more suitable for determining the hardness of cooked noodles; F 1, F 2, and K, obtained from a three-stage analytical method for the inner and outer hardness of cooked noodles characterization, had excellent performance to match with sensory evaluation.