Abstract:In order to investigate the effects of alkaline salts (composed of sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate) on the quality of wheat flour and derived noodles, three wheat varieties with different gluten strengths were used as the experimental materials for the study on the impacts of different mass ratios of sodium carbonate to potassium carbonate and the amounts of alkaline salts for addition on the gluten characteristics of wheat flour, and the protein composition and molecular weight changes of derived noodles. The effects of alkaline salts on the molecular weight distribution of proteins in the noodles were investigated by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. The results showed that the addition of alkaline salts could decrease the wet and dry gluten contents in the three varieties of wheat flours while increasing the gluten index. Among which the wet gluten of Xinong 979 declined from 36.04% to 26.58%, with its dry gluten content decreasing from 12.22% to 7.74%. Alkaline salts could increase the overall contents of albumin and salt-soluble proteins while decreasing significantly the contents of globulin and gluten proteins in the three kinds of noodles. The content of GMP did not change significantly, whilst the contents of gliadin and glutenin decreased upon the addition of alkaline salts. With the increase of added alkaline salt, the content of gliadin in the noodles made from Aikang 58 decreased from 4.12% to 1.69% with the content of glutelin also decreasing from 4.44% to 2.77%. The research results provide a theoretical basis for the industrial production of noodles.
