ANSWER

There are two ingredient option that can improve noodle brittleness. Curdlan and Transglutaminase.

Curdlan

Curdlan, is an interesting polysaccharide which is produced by microbial fermentation of a mutant strain named A.faecalisvar. myxogenes (Nishinari & Doi, 2012; Hui & Sherkat, 2005). Curdlan is described as tasteless, odourless and colourless. However, it possesses an excellent gel forming ability and water-retaining properties (Phillips & Williams, 2009).

Curdlan is a widely-used food additive with unique characteristics of improving, modifying and stabilizing the physical properties of noodle products. It also acts as an agent for texture modification, binding, gelling, shape retention and moisture improvement (Nussinovitch & Hirashima 2013; Nishinari & Doi, 2012). Therefore, the brittle nature of the noodles can be improved with correspondingly higher moisture content as well as increasing the breaking/ tensile strength and elongation at breaking in noodles (Nishinari & Doi, 2012).

The ability of curdlan in producing retortable and freezable food gel making it a great aid in tofu noodles development. Incorporation of curdlan in noodle dough enables it to reduce the leaching of soluble ingredients and softening of the noodles, resulting in clearer soup broths with improved texture and mouthfeel (Nussinovitch & Hirashima 2013; Phillips & Williams, 2009; Hui & Sherkat, 2005). According to Lee et al. in 2006, the addition of curdlan significantly increased the gumminess and hardness, and reducing the stickiness of noodles. Arai & Udagawa (2009) also proposed that the use of starch and curdlan in combination has significantly improved rupture strength and hardness. Curdlan is great in reducing the brittleness of noodles and subsequently minimize the tendency of breaking as well as improving elasticity and strength of noodles (Williams, 2015; Nussinovitch & Hirashima 2013; Thomas et al., 2013; Khan et al., 2007)

Transglutaminase

Effects of Transglutaminase on noodle texture has been extensively studied by many scientific researches in which all of them have drawn similar conclusion from their research work. The textural parameters of noodles treated with transglutaminase such as tensile force, hardness and gumminess are generally increased (Wu & Corke, 2005).The cross-linking function of transglutaminase has indicated that it could act directly on the proteins in wheat flour, and improve firmness and elasticity by reinforcing the network structure and density (Ganet al., 2009; Wu & Corke, 2005).The addition of transglutaminase can also significantly improve the rheology and processing properties, cooking quality as well as the tensile strength and elasticity of uncooked and cooked noodles (Foo et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2011).

 

References

Foo, W.T., Yew, H.S., Liong, M.T. & Azhar, M.E. (2011). Influence of Formulations on Textural, Mechanical and Structural Breakdown Properties of Cooked Yellow Alkaline Noodles. International Food Research Journal, 18(4), 1295-1301.

Gan, C. Y., Ong, W. H., Wong, L. M. & Easa, A. M. (2009). Effects of Ribose, Microbial Transglutaminase and Soy Protein Isolate on Physical Properties and In Vitro Starch Digestibility of Yellow Noodles. LWT – Food Science and Technology, 42(1), 174-179.

Hui, Y.H. & Sherkat, F. (2005). Handbook of Science, Technology and Engineering – 4 Volume Set (pp. 4-13). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Khan, T., Park, J.K. & Kwon, J.H. (2007). Functional Biopolymers Produced by Biochemical Technology Considering Applications in Food Engineering. Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, 24(5), 816-826.

Lee, S.Y., Kim, J.Y., Lee, S.J. & Lim, S.T. (2006). Textural Improvement of Sweet Potato Starch Noodles Prepared without Freezing Using Gums and Other Starches. Food Science and Biotechnology, 15(6), 986-989.

Nishinari, K. & Doi, E. (2012). Food Hydrocolloids: Structures, Properties and Functions (pp. 122-124). New York: Springer Science & Business Media.

Nussinovitch, A. & Hirashima, M. (2013). Cooking Innovations: Using Hydrocolloids for Thickening, Gelling and Emulsification (pp. 89-92). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Phillips, G.O. & Williams, P.A. (2009). Handbook of Hydrocolloids (pp. 585-587). Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing Limited.

Shiau, S.Y. (2004). Effects of Emulsifiers on Dough Rheological Properties and the Texture of Extruded Noodles. Journal of Texture Studies, 35(1), 93—103. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-4603.2004.tb00824.x

Thomas, S., Durand, D., Chassenieux, C. & Jyotishkumar, P. (2013). Handbook of Biopolymer-Based Materials: From Blends and Composites to Gels and Complex Networks. Weinheim, Germany: John Wiley & Sons.

Wang, F., Huang, W., Kim, Y., Liu, R. & Tilley, M.  (2011). Effects of Transglutaminase on the Rheological and Noodle-making Characteristics of Oat Dough Containing Vital Wheat Gluten or Egg Albumin. Journal of Cereal Science, 54(1), 53-59.

Williams, P. (2015). Renewable Resources for Functional Polymers and Biomaterials: Polysaccharides, Proteins and Polyesters (p. 336). London: The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Wu, J. & Corke, H. (2005). Quality of Dried White Salted Noodles Affected by Microbial Transglutaminase. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 85(15), 2587-2594. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.2311