DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF NOODLES PREPARED FROM RICE AND WHEAT FLOUR BLENDS

Noodles were prepared by incorporation varying blends (0, 20, 40, 60 and 80%) of rice flour in replacement of wheat flour. Noodle samples were evaluated for their proximate composition, scavenging activity, sensory properties and cooking quality characteristics. The proximate composition of uncooked noodles varied significantly, with increasing rice flour level that replaced wheat flour , a gradual decreases in moisture , ash , crude fiber and protein contents in noodle pastes were occurred , their values ranged between 4.02-5.33% ; 1.11-5.22% , 0.65-0.82% and 8.51-12.81% ,respectively. However, an increases in fats, total carbohydrates and energy value were take place ranging between 4.62-8.91 % , 71.11-76.74% and 377.64 - 421.43 kcal/100g, respectively .The antioxidant activity ranged between 22.2% for wheat based noodle (100% wheat flour) to 36.8% for sample containing 80% rice flour as scavenging activity for free radicals. The overall acceptability of wheat-based noodles (WF: RF 100:00) were rated superior for their sensory preferable characteristics. Among the blended flour noodles, the noodles incorporated with up to 40% rice flour received the same acceptability as wheat-based noodle. The cooking quality characteristics differed significantly among the noodle samples; the cooking time ranged from 6.5 to 10.3 min, it was more in wheat-based noodles than noodles from rice flour. Cooking loss; water absorption percent; cooked weight and swelling index values ranged from 0.1 to 0.6%, 137.1 to 231.6%, 23.74 to 33.24 g/g and 3.20 to 5.38 %, respectively; which revealed that a significant hindered was occurred in the functional paste properties and cooking quality parameters with increasing the level rice flour in noodles. The study indicated that, noodles prepared from mixtures of wheat and rice flour showed that the best acceptable sensory attributes and cooking quality characteristics were observed at blending ratio 40 : 60% rice flour : wheat flour . These findings enhance the utilization of non- conventional flours like rice flour for the development of value added noodles with reduced gluten content and boost nutritional value.