Glycine-amidated pectin-mediated network formation in wheat noodle dough: From molecular pre-structuring to cooking...

Noodle cooking often results in uncontrolled structural changes, while traditional pectin modification faces limitations due to high hydrophilicity. This study investigated glycine-amidated pectin (GP) effects on noodle quality. GP significantly reduced water absorption (79.24%-37.00%) and shortened cooking time (8-6 min). Crucially, GP facilitated a dense network with a minimum protein extraction yield (0.18 g/g) and stable total thiol profile (31.5 μmol/g after cooking), effectively ruling out protease interference. GP limited hardness increase to 2.3-fold (versus 10.5-fold in control) while maintaining springiness (4.51 mm), achieving a "soft yet elastic" texture. The mechanism involved a "pre-structuring regulation-induced reconstruction" process, where GP induced protein conformational transformation (β-turn increased from 47.0% to 53.0%) and promoted directional water state conversion (weakly to strongly bound), establishing stable network structures for controlled gelatinization. GP offers a promising strategy for noodle quality regulation through molecular pre-structuring.