**3. Results and Discussions**

## *3.1. Effects of Storage on Cooking Quality*

Cooking quality and characteristics of wheat noodles fortified with isomaltodextrin during storage periods of 0 to 24 months, at 25, 4, and −20 ◦C are summarized in Table 1. Determining the cooking quality aimed to understand the interrelationship between storage temperature and storage time in terms of noodle quality, to ensure consumer acceptancy and the mouthfeel of the products. The cooked weight gain of the noodles stored at 4 and −20 ◦C did not significantly differ from 0 to 24 months. However, the cooked weight gain significantly differed after 18 months for noodles stored at 25 ◦C (62.62 ± 0.15, 62.56 ± 0.16, 62.37 ± 0.16 g for 18, 21, and 24 months, respectively) as compared with 0 months (63.97 ± 0.60 g). The results agreed with a previous study [19], finding that the reduction in cooked weight was probably due to an increase in cooking loss. Cooking loss was to measure the number of solids remaining in the cooking water, which was caused by the leaking of amylose and solubilization of soluble proteins [20]. The cooking loss for noodles stored at 25 ◦C significantly differed from 3.71 ± 0.02 to 3.93 ± 0.04, 3.98 ± 0.05, 4.08 ± 0.07, and 4.13 ± 0.07 at 0, 15, 21, and 24 months. Appropriate cooking time and

adequate cooking water may control the cooking loss, which deeply affects the texture and sensory attributes of the noodles.


**Table 1.** Cooking quality characteristics of wheat noodles fortified with isomaltodextrin during different storage periods and temperature.

Scores are presented as mean ± SD of triplicate analysis. The lowercase letters indicated significant difference in each column (*p < 0.05*).
