Effects of sodium chloride or salt substitutes on rheological properties and water-holding capacity of flour and hardness of noodles

The effects of sodium chloride (NaCl) or commercial salt substitutes (SS2 and SS4) on dough and white-salted noodles (WSN) were studied. NaCl, SS2, and SS4 were added separately at 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4% on a flour weight basis. Water capacity of flour samples were evaluated whereas for dough, rheological properties, pH, and microstructure were evaluated. For noodles, microstructure and hardness of zero-salted noodles (ZSN) and WSN were studied. All dough showed higher storage modulus (G') than loss modulus (G '') and loss tangent (tan delta) <1. The increment of NaCl gave flour samples significantly higher water-holding capacity (P < 0.05) and firmer noodles. The increment of NaCl significantly reduced pH (P < 0.05) of dough. The microstructure of dough which contain NaCl and both SS appeared to be a more compact and continuous gluten network structure. WSN-SS4-4 showed more compact microstructure than WSN-NaCl-4 and WSN-SS2-4. G' and G '' were negatively correlated with pH of dough. The pH of dough had positive correlation with hardness of noodles. Addition of 1.5 % NaCl, 1% SS2, and SS4 maybe useful due to better qualities than other concentrations of salts, respectively.