If you’ve ever made homemade noodles, you’ve probably seen the noodles turn a gray color after drying. This is due to polyphenol oxidase enzymes in hard white wheat flour.
Polyphenol oxidase is found in all plants and causes browning in cut apples, black spots in cut avocadoes, and dark marks on banana peels.
USDA Agricultural Research Service researchers have now developed a new wheat variety with practically no polyphenol oxidase. They crossed two Australian wheat varieties from a germplasm collection in the 1930s. This variety will benefit the milling industry and exporters to Asian markets.
Learn more about this wheat variety in the April 2016 issue of AgResearch Magazine at http://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2016/apr/wheat/.
