Quality improvement of frozen cooked noodles by protein addition.

This study investigated the impact of protein enrichment on the physicochemical, cooking, textural, and color properties of frozen cooked noodles (FCN) stored for 0-3 weeks at -18 °C. Incorporating casein, egg white protein, and soy protein into the noodles significantly increased moisture content, with casein-enriched noodles showing the highest initial moisture levels. The addition of proteins also led to increased ash content, indicating improved nutritional quality. Protein enrichment resulted in reduced cooking loss and enhanced water retention during cooking and frozen storage. Casein-enriched noodles exhibited the highest water absorption capacity and the most substantial enhancement in textural properties, maintaining cohesiveness, gumminess, and elasticity better than egg white protein and soy protein during storage. The results indicated that egg white protein promotes intermolecular interactions, leading to enhanced color stability over time. These findings suggest that enriching with the protein could be a viable approach to elevate the overall quality of FCN.

Boiling-induced changes on physicochemical, bioactive compounds, color, and texture properties of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima).

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of boiling duration on physicochemical, bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, color, and texture properties of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima). The pumpkin was subjected to boiling for 1, 5, 10, and 20 min at 100 ℃. The physicochemical analyses showed that pH, moisture, and water solubility index were increased, whereas ash content was decreased with increasing the boiling time. Prolong boiling exhibited a detrimental effect on bioactive compounds of pumpkin, and it was found that 20 min of boiling caused about 25.91% ± 2.21% loss of total phenolic content, 14.79% ± 1.03% loss of total carotenoids content, and 18.46% ± 1.34% loss of antioxidant activity. A kinetic study was conducted to quantify the losses occurring in bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, changes in color, and firmness of pumpkin. The study revealed that the logistic model can predict the variation in bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity with higher R2. However, first-order kinetic models were found suitable to predict the changes occurring in bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, color properties (L*, a*, b*, Chroma), and firmness. The total color changes (ΔE) showed a good fit with zero-order kinetic models (R2 = 0.98). The t1/2 and D-value were calculated for all measured parameters of pumpkin. These findings would be useful in designing thermal processes and related calculations of pumpkin.