Development, characterization, and shelf-life assessment of gluten-cum-oil free button mushroom-based noodles retaining L-tryptophan, serotonin, and melatonin

Button mushrooms ( Agaricus bisporus ) widely consumed for proteins, are also rich sources of important but less explored antioxidant-cum-biotherapeutic molecules, namely serotonin and melatonin and their precursor L-tryptophan. In the current study, the said mushrooms have been utilized to design gluten-free mushroom noodles by minimal processing with judicious usage of additives, without perturbing the natural antioxidant synergy among L-tryptophan-serotonin-melatonin. Multi-criteria decision tree: TOPSIS method was used with three input and five output variables for selecting the ingredients and the processing parameters of the noodles. The optimized conditions for development of the noodles were: 50% lyophilized button mushroom (w/w of flour d.w.b), 0.75% lecithin (w/w of flour d.w.b) as additive, and 15 min microwave drying time for the finished raw noodle. The newly formulated noodles exhibited appreciable antioxidant activities in terms of TPC, DPPH, FRAP, reducing power; besides adhering to characteristic noodle properties in terms of proximate composition, physicochemical properties, cooking indices, EDX profile, thermal stability, and microstructure. L-tryptophan, serotonin and melatonin contents of the noodles were 3920.36 µg/g, 6142.91 µg/g and 360.52 µg/g, d.w.b, respectively, with a SE value of 1.1 indicating antioxidant synergy of the biomolecule triad. The shelf-stability of the packaged noodles was assessed using three 2-ply packaging laminates (PET, PE) and the laminate with highest thickness of PE offered an optimal blend of mechanical strength, mild barrier characteristics and heat-sealability, rendering it an appropriate packaging laminate for the new designer noodles.