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Suitability of Different Starches for Production of Kuanfen (Chinese Flat Starch Noodles)

¹College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, No. 17 Qinghua Dong Lu, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China. ²Corresponding author. Phone: +86-10-62736442. Fax: +86-10-62737331. E-mail: llt@cau.edu.cn; lilite137@163.com

Starches from potato, corn, sweet potato, and rice were compared with mung bean starch for their suitability for producing kuanfen, Chinese flat starch noodles. Significant differences were found in the chemical composition and swelling power among starches (P < 0.05). Maximum tensile stress and maximum tensile strain was highest for kuanfen made from mung bean starch and sweet potato starch, respectively. Higher work was needed to break kuanfen made from mung bean and sweet potato starches. Kuanfen made from mung bean starch was most favored by panelists, followed by those from sweet potato starch. General acceptability of kuanfen correlated positively and significantly with chewiness, cohesiveness, and elasticity of the noodles. For predicting sensory acceptability of kuanfen using instrumental methods, correlation was performed between sensory variables and tensile parameters. Results showed that work-to-break correlated significantly with chewiness, elasticity, and general acceptability while maximum tensile strain correlated significantly with sensory cohesiveness. Therefore, both of these two tensile parameters could be useful for predicting the textural properties of kuanfen.