Addition of Chlorophyll Microcapsules to Improve the Quality of Fresh Wheat Noodles

Effects of chlorophyll microcapsules (CHL-MICs) addition on the quality of fresh wheat noodles (FWN) were studied. Results showed that CHL-MICs addition could give the FWN an attractive greenness that the a* value was increased from -0.41 +/- 0.09 to -11.25 +/- 0.24. Meanwhile the cooking loss (CL) of FWN was decreased from 10.11 +/- 0.12 to 9.58 +/- 0.12, and the textural properties of FWN was enhanced (p < 0.05). Moreover, compared to the control sample, the intensities of absorption peaks of O-H, C=O and the amorphous region of FWN were decreased determined by ATR-FT-IR, and denaturation peak temperature was increased from 83.83 to 112.79 degrees C detected by DSC, respectively. The morphology of the noodles became smooth, and starch granules of noodles were tightly wrapped in the gluten network. These results proved that CHL-MICs could enhance the wheat protein network of FWN by electrostatic interactions between chlorophyll and starch/gluten. In addition, the sensory analysis of FWN with the addition of 0.5% CHL-MICs had the highest score of 89.25 +/- 2.69 than that of control sample (82.05 +/- 2.48) (p < 0.05). Therefore, CHL-MICs could be a natural food additive used to improve the quality of FWN.