Relationships of High Molecular Weight Glutenin Subunit Composition and Molecular Weight Distribution of Wheat Flour Protein with Water Absorption and Color Characteristics of Noodle Dough

Colors of noodle doughs made from hard white winter wheat flours from Oregon were measured at optimum noodle water absorptions (NWA). Partial correlations, removing effect of protein concentration, indicated that NWA had negative relationships with 0 hr L* and 24 hr b*, and positive relationships with 0 and 24 hr a*. Kernel hardness index had positive simple and partial correlations with NWA without any significant (P < 0.05) correlation with color parameters. High molecular weight glutentin subunits (HMW-GS) significantly (P < 0.05) affected all measured noodle parameters except for 0 hr L*. Covariance analysis, using protein concentration as a covariate, indicated that HMW-GS significantly affected NWA and a* (P < 0.01). Wheat cultivars with HMW-GS 17+18 showed significantly higher mean NWA and a* values than those with alternative Glu-B1 subunits. Protein molecular weight distributions affected noodles, as shown by significant correlations with absorbance areas and % areas of protein size exclusion (SE) HPLC chromatograms. Protein fractions that had positive correlations with redness had negative correlations with yellowness. Applying multivariate, analyses to SE-HPLC data to derive calibration models to predict fresh noodle dough a* and b* values had R-2 > 0.91 and cross validations values of R-2 > 0.75.