Fortification of Yellow Alkaline Noodles with Wheat Bran and the Impact on Physical and Sensorial Properties.

Food fortification is a commonly-used method to increase nutritional value of food products in order to reduce the risks of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Noodles are a versatile and popular staple food, especially in Asia, that can be nutritionally enriched using various types of ingredients and one of them is wheat bran that is rich in dietary fiber. This study aimed to determine effect of fortification of fresh yellow alkaline noodles with wheat bran on its physical and sensorial properties. Addition of wheat bran was varied in concentration (0-20%) and physical properties of fortified yellow alkaline noodles were assessed. Additionally, 9-point hedonic scale and 'Just About Right' scale were employed to assess sensory properties of the fortified noodles, using 40 non-trained panelists. Noodles fortified with the highest amount of wheat bran exhibited the highest cooking loss (4.61%) compared to the non-fortified one (2.78%), indicating weak structural integrity, presumably due to the impaired gluten network. On contrary, noodles fortified with various amount of wheat bran did not demonstrate significant alteration of textural properties in terms of springiness, cohesiveness, and resilience. Sensorially, noodles fortified with 10% of wheat bran had the highest preference among the panelist based on general appearance, overall acceptability, color suitability, hardness suitability, and smoothness. Proximate analysis showed noodles supplemented with 10% of wheat bran met regulatory criteria for claim as a high-fiber food, with its dietary fiber content of 5.40 g/100 g of noodles. Conclusively, fortification of yellow alkaline noodles with wheat bran could improve its product properties.