The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between wheat flour quality and texture characteristics of frozen cooked noodles for different wheat cultivars. Thirty kinds of winter wheat flours in Henan Province were collected as the experimental material. The content of protein was studied with the FOSS 2300 automatic Kjeldahl apparatus and the rheology properties and RVA indices were also determined. The texture indices were measured after the flour was made into frozen cooked noodles. Relationships between the wheat flour variety and the texture properties of frozen cooked noodles were investigated by descriptive statistics, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). The results showed that hardness was very significantly associated with wet gluten, pasting temperature, degree of softening and farinograph quality number (P<0.01). Firmness was very significantly associate with protein, wet gluten, starch, final viscosity, setback, pasting temperature, water absorption, dough stability, dough development, degree of softening, farinograph quality number, area of drawing curve, extensible resistance and maximum resistance (P<0.01). Breaking strength was significantly associated with all the qualities of flour except breakdown, peak time and extensibility (P<0.01). Based on the scree plot and the contribution rate of variance, 5 principal components were extracted by the principal component analysis, which could reflect 84.023% of the information of original variables. According to the principle of 0.5, the first factor dominated farinogram stability time, development time, degree of softening, farinogram quality index, tensile curve area, the maximum tensile resistance, tensile resistance, tensile ratio and the maximum tensile ratio, which showed a strong positive correlation. The second factor dominated starch, peak viscosity, final viscosity, low viscosity, setback value and peak time. The third index included protein content, wet gluten and extensibility. The forth factor dominated starch, breakdown, peak time and water absorption. The fifth factor dominated amylose content and pasting temperature. HCA classified 30 varieties into 4 main groups on the basis of the measured parameters, which was consistent with the result of PCA score plots. Among the wheat flours of the first and second groups, the starch content, tensile resistance, the maximum tensile resistance, tensile ratio, the maximum tensile ratio and dough formation time were smaller, while the peak viscosity, low viscosity, final viscosity and setback, protein, wet gluten content, amylose and elongation of frozen cooked noodles were slightly larger. The texture indices were larger and the sensory score was higher in the frozen cooked noodles. Seen from the quality index of wheat flour, texture index and sensory score of frozen cooked noodle, we can find that the flour raw material for making frozen cooked noodles cannot be selected only by the index data of wheat flour and texture data of noodles, and the effect of sensory evaluation should also be considered. The result can provide some theoretical basis for the selection and processing of wheat varieties. © 2017, Editorial Department of the Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. All right reserved.
