The formation of dough is a key process in industrial flour processing and dough quality directly affects the quality of final products.Many factors,such as the chemical composition of the flour,additives,and mixing,affect the formation of dough.The aim of this paper was to study the effect of natural food additives on the water holding capability of dough by NMR and MRI Techniques.In the NMR experiment,a multi-component model was adopted to analyze the obtained proton relaxation curves.The effect of natural food additives including butter,milk powder,dietary fibers,dextrin,soy protein,and sucrose on flour dough were examined.It was found that added sucrose,butter,milk powder,and gelatinized starch improved the qualitative property,and showed positive correlation to the amount of the additives; and the added soy protein and gelatinized starch increased the water holding capacity of the dough and improved dough formation.A small amount of soy dietary fibers improved the water holding capacity,but if the amount was over 3%,it would have negative impact on dough formation.