Marigold flower (Tagetes erecta L.) as natural food colourant in the making of wet noodle

Wet noodles are one type of noodle made without a drying process. Generally, wet noodles are yellow due to a reaction with alkaline salts. However, wet noodles were added with artificial colouring to give more yellow colour and increase consumer acceptance. The petals of the marigold flower (Tagetes erecta L.) contain carotenoid pigments that give yellow colour; thus, they can replace artificial colourants. In this research, marigold powder (MP) with various concentrations (0, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1%) was subjected to wet noodles formulation. The result showed that WN3 with 0.5% MP was the preferred formulation with 1.36±0.03%, 60.97±0.66%, and 0.41% ±0.01 of carotenoid, moisture, and ash content, respectively. Cooking loss and water absorption of the WN3 were 1.05±0.06% and 91.60±4.97%. The lightness and °Hue of the WN3 are within the values of 61.85 and 88.48, which indicates a yellow-red colour. Panellists slightly like (5.46±0.85) the overall acceptance of the WN3. The degree of acceptance of colour and foreign aroma is within the range of neutral to slightly like, while for foreign taste, chewiness and stickiness are slightly like to like. Additionally, the result for the scoring test showed that WN3 had a slightly yellow colour, slightly foreign aroma, slightly less intense foreign taste, chewy, and slightly sticky. Thus, the study suggested that WN3 consisting of 0.5% MP is selected as the preferred formulation to make wet noodles.