Enhancing the quality and health benefits of fresh noodles: The impact of selenium-enriched wheat flour on physicochemical properties and nutritional value.

Due to selenium deficiency in most regions of China, it is crucial to ensure safe and effective supplementation of selenium intake in daily life. Selenium-enriched fresh noodles were prepared by selenium-enriched wheat flour. The results indicated that organic selenium in selenium-enriched wheat flour improved the viscoelasticity of dough. High selenium noodles (HSN) exhibited superior cooking quality compared to control (plain noodles, PN). In FT-IR analysis, organic selenium in selenium-enriched noodles may promote the development of protein ordered structure, enhancing CH stretching vibration and the forming hydrogen bonds with starch. Additionally, the in vitro digestion study revealed that HSN had the highest resistant starch (RS) content of 42.28 %, which was 12.37 % higher than that of PN. In sensory evaluation, HSN received the highest overall score. Therefore, using selenium-enriched wheat flour with an appropriate selenium content to make fresh noodles can enhance both the quality and health benefits of the noodles.