Measurement of cooked noodle stickiness using a modified instrumental method

Stickiness of cooked noodles, generally defined as a maximum force in tension after compression, depends on the compression force, contact area, and physical properties of the noodles. In the conventional method of measuring stickiness, only compression force was set as a standard, neglecting the other probable influencing factors. A modified method was developed for measuring contact area between noodles and a probe, in addition to the compression force. Four specimens with varying starch contents (0, 30, 60, and 90%) were tested to evaluate the new method for measuring cooked noodle stickiness. Contact area calculated from the displacement of probe at the compression condition was not consistent among the noodle samples. A corrected stickiness and a corrected compression force were defined as a simple stickiness directly measured for the contact area and the compression force measured for the contact area, respectively. This method proved to be a more effective means in differentiating the stickiness among noodle samples (than using just compression force factors). The order in the corrected stickiness magnitudes among the noodles was consistent regardless of specimen amount used in the measurements, whereas that of the simple stickiness was inconsistent when different size samples were used. The corrected compression force estimated from a fixed simple compression force, which is a true compression stress, varied among the noodles. Accordingly, the corrected compression force was a more accurate criteria for stickiness measurements than was the simple compression force, which subjects the specimens to only differences in compression for stickiness comparison. The corrected stickiness results showed greater relationship to sensory stickiness and starch content than the simple stickiness measurement.