Humidity-controlled heat treatment of fresh spinach noodles for color preservation and storage quality improvement

Jun-Jie Xing; Ling-Ling Cheng; Shuai Feng; Xiao-Na Guo; Ke-Xue Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2023.101042

Humidity-controlled heat treatment of fresh spinach noodles for color preservation and storage quality improvement

Food Chem X. 2023 Dec 3:20:101042. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2023.101042. eCollection 2023 Dec 30.

Authors

Jun-Jie Xing¹, Ling-Ling Cheng¹, Shuai Feng¹, Xiao-Na Guo¹, Ke-Xue Zhu¹

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu Province, PR China.

Abstract

The high sensitivity to color browning during room-temperature storage was a significant factor in limiting the development of fresh spinach noodles (FSN). The practice of humidity-controlled heat treatment (HCHT) at varying temperatures, relative humidity, and time was carried out to limit enzyme activity and improve the quality of FSN. Results showed that HCHT could maximize the color preservation of fresh spinach noodle quality while effectively inactivating polyphenol oxidase and the yeasts, and mold count in FSN during storage was almost undetectable after mild conditions (80 °C). The hardness and chewiness of HCHT noodles were significantly increased, but the free sulfhydryl content was reduced. At 80 °C, 90 %, 5 min, protein structural aggregation was found in the microstructure of HCHT fresh spinach noodles. HCHT also caused partial gelatinization, as evidenced by the decrease in starch gelatinization enthalpy from 5.49 to 4.77 J/g, although the gelatinization degree of FSN was comparatively low.

Keywords: Color preservation; Fresh spinach noodles; Hydrothermal treatment; Polyphenol oxidase; Shelf life.