A new procedure for describing and discriminating the stress relaxation behaviour of soft solid foods was investigated using yellow alkaline noodles (YAN) as a model system. YAN were prepared from Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS), Canada Western Hard White Spring (CWHWS) and Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD) wheat flours (similar to 74% milling yield) using a 1% w/w kansui solution. Analysis of normalized stress relaxation data on cooked alkaline noodles using a method based on the Wiechert mechanical model revealed that the new parameters S*, area under the curve, and P*, the residual stress after long relaxation times, were more effective discriminators of stress relaxation behaviour than Peleg's k(1) and k(2) parameters. Yellow alkaline noodles made from CWRS and CWAD wheat flour had significantly more elastic-like behaviour (S* = 0.691 and 0.700, and P* = 0.629 and 0.638, respectively) than noodles made from CWHWS (S* = 0.673 and P* = 0.600). Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.