Exploring the noodle-making potential and digestibility of native oat starch and citric acid cross-linked resistant oat starch

Abstract

Background and Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the noodle-making potential of oat starch and how addition of chemically modified oat starch affects quality and digestibility. An oat starch noodle preparation method was optimized and subsequently used for substituting varying levels of native oat starch (NOS) with citrate-modified oat starch (COS) (15%, 20%, 25%, and 30%). Findings: Results indicated that NOS noodles showed similar cooking loss, cooking time, and color to commercial rice noodles. Significant differences emerged between COS and NOS noodles concerning cooking time, adhesiveness, and color values. Noodles with a 25% substitution of COS demonstrated favorable quality characteristics. In terms of in vitro digestibility, noodles with COS substituted at 25% of NOS released the least amount of glucose over the 300-min digestion period compared to NOS and commercial noodles. Conclusions: The partial replacement of NOS with COS significantly reduced the cooking time of noodles without affecting their adhesiveness and color compared to NOS-only noodles. Furthermore, the in vitro digestion experiments showed that partial substitution of NOS with COS results in lower glucose release than NOS-only noodles, which is desirable for the management of postprandial blood glucose levels. Significance and Novelty: Oat starch by-products show potential for human consumption through starch noodle preparation, presenting promising avenues for the utilization of oat starch within the food industry.