Summary of “Small Research-Discussion” on Cereal Grains in Japan “The flavor of local flour in white salted noodle”

Abstract

At the Small Research-Discussion on Cereal Grains in the annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Food Science and Technology in 2023, Dr. Tomoyuki Narisawa (Saitama Industrial Technology Center Northern Laboratory) gave a lecture entitled " What is the flavor of local flour in white salted noodle? :-Focusing on wheat from Saitama Prefecture-". They discovered a mechanism that lipoxygenase (LOX), an enzyme present in wheat flour dough, oxidizes unsaturated fatty acids to generate linear aldehydes (for examples: hexanol, heptenal, nonenal) and ketones, which express the unique flavor of local flour. In particular, it was confirmed that Norin 61 had significantly high LOX activity in the dough. Thus, the flavor of local flour in udon (white salted noodle) is thought to be caused by the oxidized odor resulting from the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids caused by high LOX activity.