Chemical composition, Functional properties and performance of soybean and wheat flour blends in instant fried noodles

The study evaluated the quality of fried instant noodles supplemented with soybean flour. Flour was prepared from soybean seeds. The chemical composition and functional properties of wheat flour and soybean flour were determined. The soybean flour was used to substitute 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% of wheat flour in fried noodles which were assessed for the chemical composition, sensory and cooking characteristics. The soybean flour contained higher amounts of protein (36.16%), ash (1.56%), crude fiber (2.65%) but less carbohydrate (33.51%), fat (1.90%) and moisture (7.14%) contents than wheat flour. The wheat flour contained 6.76% protein, 0.57% ash, 0.63% crude fiber, 2.38% fat and 10.86% moisture. The soybean flour had higher water absorption capacity, bulk density, foaming capacity, foam stability and emulsion stability than wheat flour. The water absorption capacity increased while the oil absorption capacity, foaming and emulsifying properties decreased with increase in the level of soybean flour in the blends. The fried instant noodles containing 40% soybean flour was not significantly different (p>0.05) from the 100% wheat flour noodles in the sensory attributes evaluated. The fried noodles containing 40% soybean flour was significantly higher (p<0.05) in the protein, ash, crude fiber and fat contents than the 100% wheat flour noodles. The cooking time (9.20min), cooking loss (10.10%) and weight increase (120%) of the instant fried noodles containing 40% soybean flour were higher than those of the 100% wheat flour noodles. The cooking time, cooking loss and weight increase of the 100%wheat flour noodles were 7.19 min, 8.62% and 113.20%, respectively. The cooking time, cooking loss and percent weight increase increased while the volume increase decreased as the level of soybean flour increased in the noodles. composition, and of and in