
emulsifying, coating, and stabilizing them. Hydrocolloids are long-chain
polymers with hydrophilic groups like carboxyl, amide, and aldehyde,
which make them easy to disperse, dissolve (completely or partially),
and swell in water (Zhang, Liu, Feng, Ren, & Wang, 2023). These ad-
ditives are considered high-quality food additives known for their
functional properties and are commonly used to enhance the quality and
functionality of dough products. For example, xanthan gum has shown
to increase the water-holding capacity and form stabilized gels when
interacting with wheat gluten and starch. This interaction reduces the
osmotic surface oil content in fried samples (Cui, Chen, Zhai, Peng, &
Xiong, 2023). Similarly, resistant dextrins, when combined with pro-
teins, have been found to signicantly decrease oil absorption while
improving the color and quality of deep-fried breadcrumbs (Wang,
Yang, Kong, & Chen, 2024). Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) is an
anionic hydrophilic colloid that possesses a negatively charged surface
which allows it to attract positively charged protein molecules, leading
to the formation of hydrophilic complexes through electrostatic in-
teractions (Salehi, Inanloodoghouz, & Karami, 2023), thereby altering
the hydrophobicity and porosity of the food surface and reducing water
loss and oil absorption transfer (Wang, Ng, Warner, Stockmann, & Fang,
2023a,b). Reaz, Abedin, Mohammad Abdullah, Satter, and Farzana
(2023) showed that the addition of hydrocolloids of 0.1% CMC to wheat
our resulted in cookies with lower fat level and good sensory proper-
ties. These ndings suggest that the microstructure of food samples can
be altered by incorporating CMC, thereby affecting oil absorption.
While research on the effects of sodium carboxymethylcellulose has
been conducted on various food products like crackers, minced sh, and
externally coated battered chicken llets, there is limited information
available regarding its impact on the properties of breadcrumbs them-
selves. Therefore, this study hypothesized that the addition of sodium
carboxymethylcellulose could alter the internal bound water content of
breadcrumbs, thereby reducing water loss and oil absorption during
frying, and improving the quality of fried breadcrumbs.
The objective of this study was to measure various properties of
breadcrumbs and gluten proteins after the addition of sodium
carboxymethylcellulose (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%), which mainly
included the absorption of oil by the breadcrumbs during frying as well
as changes in water content before and after frying. In addition, the
changes in texture, moisture distribution and microstructure of bread-
crumbs were measured and evaluated using texture tests, low frequency
nuclear magnetic resonance (LFNMR), and scanning electron micro-
scopy (SEM), respectively.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Samples
Tris, SDS, L-cysteine, urea, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA),
and petroleum ether were purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent
Co. (Shanghai, China); Aniline-1-naphthalenesulfonic acid (ANS), and
amyloglucosidase (10000 U/g), 5,5
′
dithiobis (2-nitrobenzoic acid) were
purchased from Yuanye Biotechnology Co. (Shanghai, China); Medium
gluten wheat our and blended oil were purchased from Yihai Kerry
Golden Dragonsh brand (Shanghai, China); Yeast was purchased from
Angie’s Yeast Co. (Yichang, China); Food-grade sodium carboxymethyl
cellulose (CMC) was purchased from Henan Wanbang Chemical Science
and Technology Co. (Zhengzhou, China); Bread improver was supplied
by Chuzhou Runtai Halal Food Co. (Chuzhou, China). All the reagents
were of analytical grade except cysteine which was high performance
liquid chromatography (HPLC) grade.
2.2. Preparation of breadcrumbs
Dough samples were prepared according to the previously described
method (Zhang et al., 2021). The subsequent process of making bread-
crumbs was according to Chuzhou Runtai Co. (Chuzhou City, Anhui
Province, China). The wheat our (100 g), salt (1 g), bread improver
(0.14 g), yeast (1 g), CMC (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%), and distilled
water (47 mL) were mixed together, using an automatic dough mixer
(Dongguan Top Kitchen Technology Co.) to mix and form the dough,
and then the dough was hand-knead until the surface turned smooth.
The dough was allowed to rise for 50 min and then baked (MG38CB-AA,
Midea Group Co., China) in an oven at 180 ◦C for 20 min followed by
cooling at room temperature for 8–10 h. After crushed in a pulverizer
(JYL-C23, Joyoung Co., China) for 15 s, the average particle size was
about 3 mm–5 mm, and the obtained sample was dried in an oven
(DHG-9070, Shanghai Yiheng Scientic Instrument Co., China) at 50 ◦C
until the moisture in the center was reduced to less than 10%. Finally,
breadcrumbs were transferred to a drying dish (BY-2444, Shanghai
Bingyu Fluid Technology Co., China) until used for further experiments.
2.3. Preparation of gluten proteins
Gluten was removed using the AACC 38-10 method with fewer
modications (AACC, 2009). The prepared dough (according to 2.2) was
kneaded in a 500 mL mixture of distilled water and 10% sodium chlo-
ride, and then rinsed with a plenty of distilled water until the water
becomes clear. The above steps were repeated until the washing liquid
became clearer, then a few drops of Lugol’s solution (5.08 g KI +2.54 g I
2
xed in 200 mL) were added to the surface plate until the color no longer
turns blue. It was then lyophilized in vacuum for 96 h, ltered through a
100-mesh lter (PT-20, Shangyu Huafeng Hardware Instrument Co.,
China) and stored at −20 ◦C.
2.4. Determination of water content
Moisture content of breadcrumbs before and after frying was deter-
mined according to Saka, ¨
Ozkaya, and Saka (2021). For this, 14 g
breadcrumbs samples were weighed and placed in 103 ±2 ◦C blast
electric thermostatic drying oven to reach the constant weight (two
consecutive weighing difference of no more than 0.002 g).
Moisture content in breadcrumbs is expressed as mass percentage
and calculated based on the equation below:
z(%) = m1−m2
m×100%
where, z: moisture content in breadcrumbs (mass percentage), %; m
1
:
mass of the sample and the aluminum dish before baking, g; m
2
: mass of
the sample and the aluminum dish after baking, g; m: mass of the
sample, g.
2.5. Low frequency nuclear magnetic resonance determination
Moisture status of breadcrumbs samples was conrmed by low fre-
quency NMR (AVANCE III HD NMR, Bruker Corporation, Switzerland)
(Lei et al., 2021) with some modications. For this, 5 g of breadcrumbs
samples were placed at the bottom of a glass tube. The transverse
relaxation time (T
2
) for the breadcrumbs was measured by NMR ex-
periments using a CarrPurcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequence of pulses
with the following sequence setup parameters: sampling frequency SW
=200 kHz, echo time (TE) =0.100 ms, 90
◦
pulse width P
1
=20 s, 180
◦
pulse width P
2
=36 us, sampling interval time (TW) =4000 ms, number
of echoes (NECH) =8000, and number of slices (NS) =4.
2.6. Texture characterization
Briey, measuring breadcrumb texture properties with a texture
meter (TA.XT plusC, Stable Micro Systems, UK), 10 g of breadcrumb
samples were spread on the bottom of an aluminum box and placed at
on the texturizing table, using a probe model P/36R, and the test was
conducted using the following conditions: speed to 1.0 mm/s before
testing, 1.0 mm/s while testing, and 10.0 mm/s after testing, with a
J.-G. Zhang et al.