Effect of spirulina powder on dough properties and noodle quality

As a high-quality food raw material, spirulina has a broad application prospect in noodle products, and this paper aims to provide ideas and theoretical basis for the application of spirulina in noodle products by studying the effect of spirulina on the properties of dough and the quality characteristics of noodles. In this study, the effects of different spirulina powder additions on the intermolecular forces of gluten proteins in noodle dough, as well as their effects on moisture distribution, on the color, cooking characteristics, sensory properties and texture characteristics of noodles were studied. The results showed that the addition of spirulina powder could weaken the disulfide bond, hydrogen bond of gluten protein and enhance the hydrophobic interaction. The hydrophobic interaction got stronger than hydrogen bond when the spirulina powder was more than 6%, indicating that the gluten network was weaker. Besides, the water migration of noodle changed obviously. The transverse relaxation time T₂₁, T₂₂ and T₂₃ decreased, while A₂₁ increased and A₂₂ and A₂₃ decreased, suggesting the transformation of free water and weakly bound water to strongly bound water in noodles, as well as the ability of noodles to bind to water was enhanced. The effects of spirulina powder on the color, cooking characteristics, sensory characteristics and texture characteristics of noodles were also studied. With the addition of spirulina, the optimal cooking time and cooking loss rate of noodles increased and then decreased. When the amount of spirulina powder addition was 4%, the noodles got the shortest cooking time and the smallest cooking loss. The hardness, chewiness and cohesiveness of noodles could be increased, and the color and sensory quality of noodles got better. Combined with the color aberration mode and RGB color mode, the noodles gradually took on a blue tone when the additive amount of spirulina powder was 4%, which attracted consumers' appetite and had a higher color score. However, when the addition of spirulina powder was higher than 6%, the dough gluten structure stability would get worse, and the cooking quality and sensory quality of noodles would be poor. In conclusion, adding an appropriate amount of spirulina powder to noodles can effectively improve the overall quality of noodles.