Effect of Dry-Heated Egg White on Wheat Starch Gel and Gluten Dough

Characterization of the mechanisms of improvement of Chinese noodles by dry-heated egg white, were estimated by rheological and spectroscopic data of the effects of dry-heated egg white on wheat starch gel and gluten dough. The dry-heated egg white significantly increased breaking stress and elasticity of the starch gel but had little effect on retrogradation of the gel and distribution of proteins in the gel. On the other hand, the dry-heated egg white had a negligible effect on creep curves and IR spectra of gluten dough. From these data, improvement of Chinese noodles by the dry-heated egg white is believed to be due to interaction between the dry-heated egg white proteins and gelatinized starch molecules rather than gluten proteins. However, the effect of the dry-heated egg white on starch gel was unexpectedly small compared to the effect on the noodles.