The group of Professor Bin Xu has published its latest research entitled "The relation between wheat starch properties and noodle springiness: From the view of gluten quantitative analysis of gluten-based network" in Food Chemistry (IF=7.514). The findings have systematically elucidated the effect of gluten network formation during noodle-processing on the springiness of cooked noodles. As a consequence, our research could serve as a benchmark for the selection of appropriate wheat flour as a raw material. Di An, a PhD candidate at Jiangsu University was the first author, and Bin Xu, a professor from the same institution acted as the sole corresponding author.

Noodles are a complex system composed of starch and gluten network. The expanded starch is embedded in the gluten network. They affect each other and jointly determine the edible quality of noodles. Starch represents the main ingredient in wheat flour, and its impact on the edible quality of noodles is dependent on its implication in the formation of gluten network. Previous studies have mainly characterized the degree of gluten network formation by analyzing its structural parameters (sulfhydryl group, disulfide bond, protein molecular weight, etc.), which may damage the original state of the sample. Prof. Xu's research group processed the microstructure image using MATLAB to realize a quantitative comparison between the microstructure from dough sheet and cooked noodles, and the parameters obtained from image processing effectively revealed the differences in edible quality of noodles.

This study lays a theoretical foundation for the visualization and digitalization of noodle edible quality, and has a certain applied prospects in industrial development.

Fig. 1 Microstructure image of dough sheet processed by MATLAB

Fig. 2 Microstructure image of cooked noodles processed by MATLAB

Prof. Xu is a renown national and global researcher, and has devoted immense efforts in noodles processing theory and applications, whole grain processing technology and equipment, carbohydrate nutrition and health, etc. Over the past five years, he undertook the Key Projects of National Science & Technology Pillar Program, National Natural Science Foundation of China and 20 other scientific research projects at provincial and national levels. He has been awarded 2 first prizes, 3 second prizes and 1 third prize for provincial, ministerial scientific and technological projects. Last but not least, he applied for more than 60 national invention patents (32 authorized) and published over 200 SCI papers in reputable journals.