Original Research Article

Improvement of cooking and textural properties of rice

flour-soy protein isolate noodles stabilised with
microbial transglutaminase and glucono-δ-lactone and
dried using superheated steam

Moses Ojukwu1,2 , Hui Ling Tan1, Maizura Murad1,

Abdorreza Mohammad Nafchi1 and Azhar Mat Easa1

Abstract
In a bid to produce rice flour noodles with improved texture and reduced cooking time, rice flour-soy protein
isolate noodles (RNS) were structurally enhanced by a combined treatment (COM) of microbial transglutami-
nase (MTG) with glucono-δ-lactone (GDL). The RNS-COM was either dried using superheated steam (SHS) to
yield RNS-COM-SHS or steamed for 10 min (S10) before air drying to produce RNS-COM-S10 noodles.
Control samples were SHS-dried rice flour (RN-SHS) and air-dried RN-S10 noodles. In general, textural and
microstructural properties indicated higher textural properties and a more robust network in RNS-COM-SHS
and RNS-COM-S10 than in other noodles. However, optimum cooking time (P < 0.5) was in the order; RN-
SHS, RNS-COM-SHS < RN-S10 < RNS-COM-S10. As a result of the COM treatment, structurally enhanced
noodles were more resistant to cooking. As applied in RNS-COM-SHS noodles, SHS was able to improve
cooking quality, probably through the formation of bigger and evenly spread pores that had promoted faster
gelatinisation of starch, with a high order of relative starch crystallinity.

Keywords
enzymes, food drying, food extrusion, food texture, microstructure
Date received: 3 May 2022; accepted 1 August 2022

INTRODUCTION 2008b). More so, the significant fat content of instant

Rice flour noodles have desirable organoleptic characteris-
tics, even though the absence of gluten accounts for their
poor visco-elastic properties compared with wheat
noodles (Yalcin and Basman, 2008). Rice noodles may be
consumed fresh, but the high moisture makes them very
susceptible to deterioration. Therefore, to extend the shelf
life, rice noodles can be dried in hot air or fried in oil to
produce air-dried and instant-fried rice noodles. Making
instant rice noodles by frying in oil incorporates trans-fatty
acids into the product, a health concern (Pronyk et al.,
Food Science and Technology International 0(0) 1–10
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fried noodles also limits the shelf life of the noodles due
to the oxidation of the fats, causing rancidity in the
noodles upon storage (Pronyk et al., 2010).
There is a continuous search for improvements in the
dehydration technologies, such as the adoption of micro-
wave and infrared towards improving the rehydration prop-
erties of air-dried noodles (Pongpichaiudom and
Songsermpong, 2018). Air-dried noodles have already
1
Food Technology Division, School of Industrial Technology,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Malaysia
2
Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University
of Technology, Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria
Corresponding author:
Azhar Mat Easa, Food Technology Division, School of Industrial
Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Pulau Pinang,
11800, Malaysia.
Email: azhar@usm.my
Food Science and Technology International 0(0)
been observed to shrink during processing and also have
weak rehydration properties due to their less surface morph-
ology (Oh & Lee, 2020), develop tough textural properties,
and require a long time to cook (Gulia et al., 2014).
Pre-steaming treatments before dehydration have also
been shown to improve starch gelatinisation and the water
holding capacity of air-dried noodles, thus reducing
cooking time and loss (Gatade and Sahoo, 2015).
A process for improving the texture of rice noodles involv-
ing the combined crosslinking of soy protein isolates with
microbial transglutaminase (MTG) and glucono-δ-lactone
(GDL) in a fresh rice noodle matrix led to the production of
rice flour-soy protein isolate noodles (RNS) with textural
properties comparable to those of yellow alkaline noodles
(Ojukwu et al., 2020). MTG and GDL were used to crosslink
proteins within RNS, enhancing fresh noodles’ texture and
structural properties. GDL may have prompted some protein
cold gelation and enhanced starch granules interactions, result-
ing in harder and firmer RNS with improved starch retrograd-
ation on the noodles’ surface (Ojukwu et al., 2021). After
drying, the RNS, with improved texture and structure, had a
longer cooking time and a lower cooking yield, which could
be remedied by steaming for 5 or 10 min before drying. The
cooking time of the resultant RNS was 6.24 min, while the
cooking loss and cooking yield reduced and improved,
respectively (Ojukwu et al., 2022).
The use of superheated steam (SHS) in drying food
materials is an innovative technology that has considerable
advantages over hot air-drying methods, such as faster
drying rates due to higher temperatures, low net energy con-
sumption, less emission of hazardous substances into the
environment, and the occurrence of no oxidative reactions,
as a result of the absence of oxygen (Alfy et al., 2016;
Sehrawat et al., 2016), The utilisation of steam-heated
beyond their boiling point to dehydrate food substances
has been successfully carried out on a pilot scale on
Asian noodles (Markowski et al., 2003; Pronyk et al.,
2010; Pronyk et al., 2008b), where some improvements
were made on the texture of the noodles.
The robust network in air-dried RNS, created by cross-
linking SPI with MTG and improved surface retrogradation
of starch limited the ingress of water into the starch gran-
ules, which in turn delayed gelatinisation, making the
resultant noodle have a long cooking time and reduced
cooking yield (Ojukwu et al., 2021). Therefore, it was
thought that using SHS would improve the cooking charac-
teristics and textural qualities of dried rice-flour soy protein
isolate noodles.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Materials
Commercial rice flour was obtained from Alagappa’s flour
mills, Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Malaysia. SPI and GDL
2
were purchased from SIM Company, Sdn Bhd, Georgetown,
Penang, Malaysia. Microbial Transglutaminase (MTG)
"Activa TG-BW-MH" was provided from Ajinomoto Co.,
Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Proximate composition and amylose content of
the commercial rice flour
The composition of rice flour (moisture, protein, fat, crude
fibre, and ash) was determined following the standard pro-
cedures of AOAC (2000). Carbohydrate was measured by
difference [i.e., 100 - (% protein + %moisture + % crude
fibre + % crude fat + % ash)]. To test the amylose content,
10 mg of the defatted rice flour was dissolved in 8 ml of
90 percent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in a 25 ml volumet-
ric flask (Hoover and Ratnayake, 2001). The flask and its
contents were heated in a water bath at 85°C for 15 min
after 15 min of rapid agitation. The flask was removed,
allowed to cool, and its contents were diluted with distilled
water to make 25 ml. Then, 40 ml of distilled water and
5 ml of freshly made iodine solution were combined with
1 ml of the diluted solution in a 50 ml volumetric flask.
The volume was filled with distilled water to a capacity
of 50 ml. sing a UV-VIS Spectrophotometer, the absorb-
ance was measured at 620 nm after giving the solution
time to settle (Genesy 10S, Thermo scientific, USA).
With the aid of a common calibration curve, the amylose
content was calculated (Abiddin et al., 2018; Hoover and
Ratnayake, 2001)
Preparation of SHS-dehydrated rice noodles
The optimisation studies by Ojukwu et al. (2021) yielded
the various quantities of rice flour, SPI, MTG and GDL
used in this study. Table 1 presents the formulations,
labels, and processes for SHS-dehydrated noodles.
Pre-steamed air-dried rice noodles RN-S10 (control) were
made by combining 100 g of rice flour and 65 ml of dis-
tilled water (100°C) in a mixer (Spar Model 800-C) for
10 min to produce a consistency that was kneaded to
form a dough. The dough was then placed in a manual
stainless-steel extruder (Limai LM-20) to extrude noodles
into boiling water and surface gelatinised for 30 s before
being steamed for 10 min and dried in an oven. (AFOS
T500 dryer, UK) for 2 h, at 70 °C. The oven temperature
was raised to 100 °C for 3 h until a 13 percent moisture
content was reached. A similar method was utilised in the
preparation of SHS-dehydrated noodles (RN-SHS),
though there was no steaming, and the drying was done
in a SHS oven (31L SHARP Healsio AX1700VMR) set
at 120°C for 2 h (Markowski et al., 2003) to 13% moisture
content.
For the preparation of air-dried rice flour-soy protein
isolate noodles (RNS-COM-S10), a given quantity of
rice flour was mixed in 65 mL of water with an SPI

Table 1. Designation, formulation, composition, and description of noodles.
Sample description
Air-dried rice flour noodles steamed for 10 min prior to
air-drying
Air-dried rice flour noodles dried using super-heated
steam
Soy protein isolate-rice noodles prepared via
combined treatments by GDL and MTG- crosslinking
of SPI by GDL, steamed for 5 min and air-dried.
Soy protein isolate-rice noodles prepared via
combined treatments by GDL and MTG- crosslinking
of SPI, steamed for 10 min, and air-dried
(68.32 g/kg of rice flour), GDL (5.0 g/kg of rice flour), and
MTG (5.06. g/kg of rice flour) to form a consistent dough.
The dough was put in a plain resealable bag and placed and
incubated (Carbolite, England) at 40 °C for 2 h to allow the
crosslinking action of the MTG and GDL activity prior to
extrusion (Kim et al., 2014), surface gelatinised, steamed
for 10 min, and oven-dried in a similar fashion with
RN-S10. SHS-dehydrated rice flour-soy protein isolate
noodles (RNS-COM-SHS) were prepared using the same
procedure as RNS-COM-S10 except that there was no
steaming, and the drying was done using SHS at 120°C
for 2 h 13% moisture content. The moisture content of
each noodle sample was analysed using a rapid moisture
metre (Model HB43-S, Hologen, Mettler-Toledo Sdn,
Bhd, Selangor, Malaysia). The noodles (2 g) were ground
into a fine powder of 85–90 μm particle size and placed
in the aluminium tray, and measurements were taken on
the automatic mode.
Ph values and cooking properties of the
SHS-dehydrated noodles
The time it takes for the white central core of the noodles to
fade is the optimum cooking time. This was determined by
cooking ten strands of noodles in boiling water. After
3 min, a strand was removed from the cooking water and
cooled in distilled water at 28 °C for 2 min at 20-s intervals.
To determine the existence of the central white core, the
cooked noodles were lightly rinsed and gently squeezed
between two Plexiglas slides (Guo et al., 2017).
To measure the cooking yield of the noodles, the mass of
10 raw noodle strands was measured and then cooked to
their optimum cooking time in 200 mL of distilled water.
The cooked noodles were rinsed in cold water for 20 s
and drained, after which their final mass was taken. (Tan
et al., 2018). The cooking yield is calculated as
mass of noodles after cooking
× 100 (1)
mass of noodles before cooking
Ojukwu et al.
Amount of ingredients (g/kg of rice flour)
Designations MTG GDL SPI Steaming time (min)
RN-S10 5.06 5.0 68.32 10
RN-SHS 5.06 5.0 68.32 -
RNS-COM1-S10 5.06 5.0 68.32 10
RNS-COM1-SHS 5.06 5.0 68.32 -
Cooking loss was determined by drying 100 mL of the
cooking water to a constant mass in an oven set at 105 °
C. The cooking loss is the mass of solid material left after
drying.
To measure the pH of the noodles, 10 g of cooked
noodles were blended for 5 min with 100 mL of distilled
water. After that, the mixture was filtered, and the pH
of the filtrate was measured with a pH electrode
(Mettler-Toledo, Inlab Semi-Micro Electrode, Switzerland)
connected to a calibrated pH metre (Mettler-Toledo, S40
SevenMultiTM, Switzerland). (Yeoh et al., 2020).
Colour analysis of cooked SHS-dehydrated
noodles
A Minolta CM-3600d Spectrophotometer was used to
measure the colour of the noodles (CIE L*, a*, b*). A
sample of approximately 10g was put in the glass con-
tainer and situated over the instrument’s slit. The mean
of five measurements was taken and denoted as L* (light-
ness), a* (redness), and b* (yellowness) (Yeoh et al.,
2020).
Texture profile analysis of cooked
SHS-dehydrated noodles
The textural profile analysis of the noodles was determined
using a TA- XT plus Stable Micro Systems Texture
Analyzer (Stable Microsystems Ltd, Surrey, England)
equipped with a 5 Kg load cell used to calibrate the instru-
ment before the measurements. With a 36 mm compression
probe (P/36), the test settings were set to a compression 75
percent compression strain. The pre-test speed was set at
2 mm/s, while the post-test speed was set at 1 mm/s.
Other options comprise a trigger type of auto with a
trigger force of 20 g and 1.0s, two compression intervals.
(Lubowa et al., 2018). Five strands of noodles were posi-
tioned on the texture analyser, and hardness, chewiness,
resilience, cohesiveness and springiness values were
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obtained after two successive compressions. The process
was repeated seven times for each sample, and the mean
was calculated. (Guo et al., 2017).
Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR)
FTIR was used to investigate the rice noodles that were
freeze-dried and ground into a powder. The FTIR spectra
of the samples were taken as transmission mode spectra
against a background of Potassium bromide (KBr) using a
KBr disc containing 1% sample of the sample and
ranging from 4000 to 400 cm−1 with a resolution of
4cm-1. 64 scans at a nominal 4 cm−1 resolution were
used to obtain all data points and analysed using Thermo
Scientific’s OMNIC 8.1.11 software (Thermo Scientific,
Madison, WI) (Seow et al., 2020). The degree of molecular
order (R) was defined using the ratio of 1047/1022 cm−1
bands from the deconvoluted FTIR spectrum (Niu et al.,
2020).
Thermal properties of the cooked noodles
The effects of drying treatments, as well as the
MTG-crosslinking of SPI and increased starch retrograd-
ation by GDL on the thermal properties of the noodles,
were studied using the Differential Scanning Calorimeter
(DSC-Q200, TA Instruments, Newcastle, UK). Each
sample was cooked to its optimum cooking time, freeze-
dried, ground, and kept in a sealed container before ana-
lysis. The DSC was calibrated with indium, and an empty
pan was used as a reference for each run. For each
sample, 5.0 mg of cooked, freeze-dried, and ground rice
noodles were weighed into a hermetic pan, and 15 mg of
distilled water was added with a micropipette. The pans
were hermetically sealed with a Tzero encapsulation press
(TA instruments, Newcastle, UK) and left at room tempera-
ture for 12 h. The samples were then heated at a rate of 10°
C/min from 10 to 160 °C. A Software advantage for Q
Series Version 2.8.0.394 was used to obtain and analyse
the Onset temperature (Tonset), peak temperature
(Tpeak), and enthalpy (H, J/g) (Kim et al., 2014; Seow
et al., 2020).
Microstructure
A broken strand of cooked and freeze-dried noodle was
placed on a sample holder, with the fractured side
facing up. The structural morphology of the noodles
was examined using a scanning electron microscope
(SEM) (FEI Quanta FEG 650 Netherlands). White gold
was then used to increase conductance, and the cross-
section was viewed at 5 kV with a magnification of
300x. (Yeoh et al., 2020).
4
Statistical analysis
The SPSS 18.0 software (SPSS Inc. Chicago II, USA) was
used to conduct variance analysis (ANOVA) on the col-
lected data. Duncan’s test was used to determine whether
significant differences (P < 0.05) existed between the
means derived from the three replications.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Commercial rice flour had a moisture content of 11.50
percent, a protein content of 4.02%, a fat content of
0.83%, an ash content of 0.41%, a crude fibre content of
0.93%, and a carbohydrate content of 82.1 percent. The per-
centage of amylose in the rice flour was 28.5%. Making rice
noodles requires rice flour with a high amylose content
(between 25 and 33 percent) (Qazi et al., 2014). By assem-
bling brief networks of starch helices, amylose crystallites
build three-dimensional matrices in rice noodles. Rice
flour gives rice noodles their structure, and the amount of
amylose in that flour is a key factor in determining their gel-
atinisation, retrogradation, and pasting capabilities (Lu and
Collado, 2019).
General description of the cooked noodles
Four types of dried rice noodles were prepared in this study:
RN-S10, RN-SHS, RNS-COM-S10, and RNS-COM-SHS.
Visually, RN-S10 and RN-SHS were whiter than
RNS-COM-S10 and RNS-COM-SHS (Figure. 1).
Compared to other noodles, RNS-COM-SHS had firmer
strands, less brittle, and more robust RNS-COM-SHS and
RNS-COM-S10 also had longer strands than RN-S10 and
RN-SHS after cooking.
pH, colour, and cooking properties of the noodles
Table 2 displays the pH values, colour, optimum cooking
time, cooking yield, and loss of noodles. The pH values
of the noodles were ranked as follows: RN-SHS, RN-S10
> RNS-COM-SHS, RNS-COM-S10. The ultimate pH
(5.8) achieved by RNS was lower than that of RN, suggest-
ing that the network formed during RNS preparation slowed
the breakdown of GDL. As the pH neared the isoelectric
point of soy protein, the attraction between polypeptide
chains increased, resulting in high protein-protein interac-
tions, but low protein-solvent interactions led to a reduced
linear chain but increased protein gel network (Ojukwu
et al., 2020; Ojukwu et al., 2021).
Colour is an essential quality parameter for noodles
because it influences the choice of purchase of consumers,
not minding how the textural properties of the noodles are.
An increase in temperature would typically cause a reduc-
tion in lightness L* and an increase in a* because noodles
tend to become brown at high SHS (Markowski et al.,

Figure 1. Pictures of the noodles (A = RN-S10 B = RN-SHS, C = RNS-COM-S10, D = RNS-COM-SHS).
2003). Values of L* decreased in RNS-COM-S10 and
RNS-COM-SHS primarily due to SPI presence, while the
yellowness (*b) increased for the same noodles (Table 2).
Customers prefer noodles that require very little energy
to cook because they cook in a shorter amount of time.
(Karim and Sultan, 2014). However, air-dried noodles
require a long time to rehydrate and cook properly. The
cooking time of the noodles varied significantly (P <
0.05) among all of them and can be ranked in the order;
RN-SHS, RNS-COM-SHS < RN-S10 < RNS-COM-S10.
RNS-COM-S10’s cooking time was significantly (P <
0.05) longer than that of RN-S10 due to the formation of
a robust structure of MTG’s crosslinking effect and
improved starch retrogradation by GDL in RNS-
COM-S10, which inhibited the ingression of water parti-
cles into the noodles, during cooking (Low et al., 2021).
Ojukwu et al.
Cooking time in RN-SHS and RNS-COMI-SHS was sig-
nificantly (P < 0.05) reduced to about 5 min. The increased
water uptake of the pre-gelatinised starch particles by the
heat-moisture treatment may account for the shorter
cooking time in noodles dehydrated with SHS. It could
also mean that the SHS precooked the noodles, modified
the starch during dehydration, and thus reduced the
optimum cooking time (Markowski et al., 2003).
Cooking yield can estimate the noodle’s water retention
capacity during cooking. The cooking yield was particu-
larly high in RN-SHS and RN-S10 because the noodles per-
mitted more water uptake during cooking, as opposed to
RNS-COM-SHS and RNS-COM-S10, where a slow gelat-
inisation of starch occurred due to shielded water ingression
as a result of crosslinking and electrostatic effects of the
GDL and MTG (Yeoh et al., 2020). This intermolecular
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Table 2. pH, cooking, and colour properties of the noodles.

Colour parameters Cooking properties

Optimum
Cooking Cooking Cooking
Samples pH L* a* b* time(min) yield (%) loss (%)

RN-S10 5.92 ± 0.06a 69.93 ± 0.01a −0.90 ± 0.03d 10.43 ± 0.01c 5.35 ± 0.34b 131.04 ± 0.03b 8.13 ± 0.45a
RN-SHS 5.98 ± 0.06a 65.43 ± 0.01b 0.40 ± 0.03c 12.73 ± 0.01d 5.02 ± 0.26c 136.01 ± 0.13a 7.41 ± 0.15b
RNS-COM-S10 5.84 ± 0.13a 62.91 ± 0.03c
0.88 ± 0.01b 15.90 ± 0.01 b 6.42 ± 0.06a 123.45 ± 0.92d 7.02 ± 0.38c
RNS-COM-SHS 5.85 ± 0.11a 61.82 ± 0.03d 0.94 ± 0.01a 17.93 ± 0.01a 5.11 ± 0.01c 129.87 ± 0.13c 6.38 ± 0.11d
Means ± SD with the same superscript on the same column are not significantly different.

Table 3. Textural and mechanical properties of the cooked noodles.

Textural properties
Samples
Hardness(N) Springiness Cohesiveness Chewiness(J)

RN-S10 41.66 ± 1.95 b 0.50 ± 0.06 c 0.48 ± 0.03b 13.52 ± 0.45c

RN-SHS 38.11 ± .0.35c 0.45 ± .0.24d 0.41 ± .0.15c 12.34 ± .0.05d
RNS-COM-S10 57.75 ± .0.75a 0.79 ± 0.10 b 0.69 ± 0.02 a 17.49 ± 0.92 b
RNS-COM-SHS 58.95 ± .0.92a 0.98 ± .0.75a 0.68 ± .0.15a 21.46 ± .0.11a
Means ± SD with the same superscript on the same column are not significantly different.

network may reduce water absorption and, as a result,
starch swelling, lowering cooking loss and, as a result, low-
ering the cooking yield of the noodles.
Noodles with a strong network can usually withstand
vigorous boiling water and minor matrix rupture. The
cooking loss of the noodles can be ranked as RN-S10 >
RN-SHS > RNS-COM-S10 > RNS-COM-SHS. RNS-
COM-SHS had the lowest cooking loss, implying that
soluble materials were significantly less leached.
Furthermore, dehydration with SHS resulted in lower
free amylose due to the formidable bonds formed by
starch gelatinisation and swelling facilitated by steaming
(Yeoh et al., 2020).
Textural properties of the noodles
The textural properties of the noodles are shown in
Table 3. Hardness is a measure of the firmness of the
noodle. Consumers show a preference for relatively
hard noodles. The hardness of the noodles varies signifi-
cantly (P < 0.05) with the different processing conditions
and formulations. The hardness was in the order;
RNS-COM-SHS, RNS-COM-S10> RN-S10>RN-SHS,
and RN-SHS had the least hardness, which can be attrib-
uted to the high temperature of the steam as well as the
lack of gluten in rice flour, which also accounts for its
poor texture. Protein crosslinking by MTG and GDL, on
the other hand, increased the stability and structural integ-
rity of RNS-COM-S10 and RNS-COM-SHS, which
increased the noodles’ hardness and made it possible for
RNS-COM-SHS to withstand the high temperatures
during SHS treatment. During SHS dehydration, the tem-
perature of the noodles rises rapidly, causing steam flash-
ing, which will form many pores in the noodle
(Markowski et al., 2003). The noodles will then dry
evenly and slowly due to increased moisture content, pro-
ducing a denser noodle, increasing hardness and
chewiness.
The springiness of the noodles was in the order;
RNS-COM-SHS = RNS-COM-S10>
RN-S10>RN-S10>RN-SHS. Springiness measures how
elastic the noodles are. The poor visco-elastic property of
rice flour is seen in RN-SHS and RN-S10, where the
noodles were less springy. However, this was improved in
RNS-COM-SHS and RNS-COM-S10 due to the crosslinking
of SPI with MTG and GDL.
The integrity of the internal bonds and the capacity of the
noodles to stick together are measured by cohesiveness. The
noodles’ cohesiveness was in the order; RNS-COM-SHS =
RNS-COM-S10> >RN-S10>RN-SHS. Again, the robust
network facilitated by MTG and GDL in RNS-COM-SHS
and RNS-COM-S10 made the noodles more cohesive than
the RN-S10 and RN-SHS, where the cohesive forces were
less and even lesser in RN-SHS due to SHS dehydration.
The cohesiveness of SHS processed noodles was 3.5%
lower than other Asian noodles by Markowski et al. (2003).
Chewiness estimates the energy needed to masticate the
noodles before swallowing. It is influenced by hardness and

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other textural properties. The chewiness of noodles is a
function of hardness and other textural properties, so
harder noodles would require more energy to chew when
compared with the ones with less hardness values. The
chewiness of the noodles was in the order;
RNS-COM-SHS > RNS-COM-S10 > RN-S10 > RN-SHS.
Thermal properties of the noodles
Air-dried noodles are steamed before drying to help create
pores which help to gelatinise the starch in the final
product. Processing in SHS also gelatinises the starch
because the high temperature of the steam allows for gel-
atinisation as the product has enough moisture content
(Taechapairoj et al., 2004). Table 4 shows the noodles’
gelatinisation temperatures and enthalpy (Δ g H)
change. SHS dehydration increased the To (onset transi-
tion temperature) and Tp (transition peak temperature)
of the noodles significantly (P < 0.05), which could be
attributed to starch modification during the heat-moisture
treatment. (Pronyk et al., 2008a). According to
Markowski et al. (2003), this does not affect starch gelat-
inisation but influences the starch granules’ swelling
index. The starch modification occurred due to a reduc-
tion in the swelling capacity of the starch granules
Gelatinisation enthalpy (Δ H g) represents the degree of
gelatinisation of starch and the heat energy needed to dis-
perse the crystallites by unsettling helical hydrogen
bonds. (Li and Gong, 2020). The gelatinisation enthalpy
data can be articulated; thus, RNS-COM-SHS <
RNS-COM-S10 < RN-SHS < RN-S10. RN-SHS and
RNS-COM-SHS had lower enthalpies than RN-S10 and

Table 4. Thermal properties of the noodles.

The relative order of

Rice noodles samples To (°C) Tp (°C) Tc (°C) ΔH (J/g) crystallinity R (1022/1047)

RN-S10 53.12 ± 3.02 b 76.16 ± 1.02 d 93.01 ± 2.83 a

10.11 ± 0.31 a 0.86
RN-SHS 56.38 ± 3.02 a 78.16 ± 1.02 a 93.01 ± 2.83 a
9.11 ± 0.31 b 0.96
RNS-COM-S10 53.22 ± 1.12 b 77.31 ± 1.33 b 90.60 ± 0.73 ab
8.38 ± 0.28 c 0.93
RNS-COM-SHS 56.32 ± 1.12 a 79.31 ± 1.33 a 90.60 ± 0.73 ab
7.38 ± 0.28 d 0.97
Means ± SD with the same superscript on the same column are not significantly different.

Figure 2. FTIR Spectra of the noodles.

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RNS-COM-S10, respectively, implying that more starch
granules were gelatinised during SHS processing. The con-
siderably larger ΔH values seen in RN-SHS and RN-S10
could be attributed to the original crystallites’ perfection,
which increases the movement of the double, which
needs more energy for its complete collapse, thus raising
the ΔH values (Liu et al., 2020). Furthermore, the reduced
ΔH values of RNS-COM-SHS and RNS-COM-S10 were
most likely due to the diluted starch in the RNS, the presence
of SPI, and protein unfolding caused by the formation of
covalently-created bonds stimulated by the crosslinking of
SPI using MTG. As an exothermic reaction, protein cross-
linking decreases enthalpy values (Lin et al., 2009).
FTIR Spectra of the noodles
Figure 2 depicts the FTIR spectra of cooked noodles. The
stretching vibration of the O-H causes an obvious peak at
3000–3600 cm−1. The peaks near 2930 cm−1 defined the
elastic vibration of the C-H. The peaks within 800∼ 1200
cm−1 symbolised the starch region (Paliwal et al., 2019).
This domain also displayed a convoluted intense peaks’ pro-
gression, which was basically connected to strongly bonded
C-C, C-O stretching, and many oligo and polysaccharide
deformation modes that included C-O-H and C-O-C bonds.
The bands 1020–1035 cm−1 and 1050–1085 cm−1 represent
C-O-H bending modes associated with non-crystalline and
crystalline starch structures correspondingly (Raungrusmee
et al., 2020).
The 1022:1047 cm−1 bands could be used to estimate the
amount of amorphous and crystalline region, which could
infer the impact of thermal processing on the starch. The
ordered and amorphous regions are represented by wave-
length bands of 1047 cm−1 and 1022 cm−1, respectively.
(Moo-Huchin et al., 2015). The RNS-COM-SHS, among
others, had the starches’ highest estimated order of relative
crystallinity (Table 4).
In contrast to RN-SHS, the relative rice starch crystallin-
ity decreased in RN-S10. This finding is similar to the
observed results for corn starch treated with moist heat
(Chung et al., 2009) and thermally-treated rice starch
(Yang et al., 2021).
While the SHS treatment did not change the starch crys-
tallinity in the noodles, pre-drying steaming whittled down
the starch crystallinity, with RN-S10 having the least
ordered starch structure. This may be due to the disruption
of hydrogen bonds during steaming, which caused the
double helices in the starch structure to straighten, as con-
firmed by Tao et al. (2021), who observed less ordering
of starch for extruded wheat dough (Figure 2).
RNS-COM-S10 and RNS-COM-SHS clearly showed dis-
tinct peaks at 800, 1700, 3000, and 3400 cm−1 wavelengths.
This finding could be associated with the presence of SPI,
GDL, and MTG. Even though RNS-COM-SHS and
RNS-COM-S10 had diluted starch content, the relative
8
crystallinity of starch was only lightly affected. Even when
it was dehydrated at a very high temperature, it was clear
that the relative crystallinity of starch was retained at a high
ordered degree in RNS-COM-SHS. The ordered starch struc-
ture would be significantly lower after steaming if SPI-cross-
linking with MTG and GDL were not combined.
Microstructure of the noodles
The structural morphologies of the noodles are shown in
Figure 3. The scanning electron micrograph of the RN-S10
had visible pores, obviously created during steaming,
though with some more compact areas, which could be
responsible for a longer cooking time as water could not
penetrate easily to gelatinise the rice starch. These hollows
became bigger and more widespread, forming micellar net-
works in RN-SHS (Figure 3). During SHS dehydration, the
temperature of the noodles quickly rises during SHS
drying, and flash steam is released during the process,
forming many pores in the noodle (Markowski et al., 2003;
Pronyk et al., 2010). The presence of these pores is partly
responsible for the noodles’ optimum cooking time, which
was in the order; RN-SHS < RNS-COM-SHS < RN-S10 <
RNS-COM-S10. The SHS was able to open the structure
of RNS-COM-SHS, which allowed faster gelatinisation of
starch granules and reduced the optimum cooking time by
1 min. RNS-COM-10 and RNS-COM-SHS were seen to
have a more compact structure than RN-S10 and RN-SHS,
with starch granules closely embedded with the proteins. In
RNS-COM-SHS and RNS-COM-S10, cracks and very few
pores were also observed. This could result from surface
tension at the surface of the noodles during drying.
Again, more pores and less tightly packed areas in
RNS-COM-SHS would provide less restriction to water
ingress into the noodle structure, reducing cooking time
and increasing cooking yield.
CONCLUSION
Structural enhancement of rice flours noodles by MTG- cross-
linking of SPI and GDL-enhanced starch retrogradation
yielded dried RNS with improved textural and mechanical
properties, with a marginal increase in cooking time. The
robust network in air-dried RNS was opened by SHS,
which allowed for faster gelatinisation, evidenced by
reduced enthalpy, increased cooking yield and sustained the
crystallinity of the starch granules in the noodle matrix.
SHS processing did not have a deleterious effect on the
critical textural properties of the noodles but yielded
noodles with shorter cooking due to faster starch gelatinisa-
tion, evidenced by reduced enthalpy. Therefore, the SHS
processing of RNS improves the cooking characteristics
and textural qualities of dried rice-flour soy protein isolate
noodles.
 Ojukwu et al.

Figure 3. Scanning electron morphology of the noodles (A = RN-S10 B = RN-SHS, C = RNS-COM-S10, D =

RNS-COM-SHS).

DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
FUNDING
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:
This work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education,
Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, (grant number FRGS/1/
2019/STG01/USM/01/1)
ORCID iDs
Moses Ojukwu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2244-9135
Abdorreza Mohammad Nafchi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
6065-5098
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