INVESTIGATION OF UNIAXIAL STRESS RELAXATION PARAMETERS TO CHARACTERIZE THE TEXTURE OF YELLOW ALKALINE NOODLES MADE FROM DURUM AND COMMON WHEATS

Durum wheat samples (three varieties), milled to yield straight-grade and patent flours, were processed into YANs. CWHWS and CWRS flours, customarily employed to make noodles, were included for comparative purposes. Uniaxial stress relaxation parameters, %SR, K1 and K2, derived from Peleg's model, were determined for all cooked noodles. Analysis of variance indicated a significant durum sample effect (P < 0.0001) on all three parameters. Significant differences (P = 0.05) were observed among all three CWHWS parameters and the durum flour samples, but not for CWRS. Significant correlations were detected among the three stress relaxation parameters and empirical texture measurements: RTC, REC and MCS. Flour yield exhibited a significant effect (P = 0.05) on %SR, K1 and K2, which was not detected using the empirical texture measurements. The uniaxial stress relaxation test provides a complementary, discriminating method for YAN texture measurement. This describes the use of uniaxial compression to characterize and discriminate Asian noodle quality texture parameters on the basis of rheological principles. It demonstrates the discriminatory power of three parameters to discern similar noodle flour sources. The technique and parameters are simple to calculate and are well correlated with traditional empirical texture measurements.