Wet noodle processing

Wet noodles are made from flour (100%) water (32-35%), salt (1-2%) and alkaline salts (0.5%-1%). The most common practice is to mix all the ingredients in a traditional horizontal mixer for 10-15 minutes to make stiff and crumbly dough pieces, but newly developed vertical mixers also are used.

The amount of water is determined by the type of flour, dough mixer and noodle machine.

Noodles can be made by extrusion or by rolling the dough into thin sheets. In automated plants, uncut fresh raw alkaline noodles (1.2 – 1.8 mm thickness and 1.5-1.7 mm width) pass through a boiling water bath for 45-60 seconds to achieve 70-80% starch gelatinization.

Then, the noodles are steeped immediately in tap water for 1-2 minutes or showered with tap water.

Later excess water in drained from the noodle surface by blowing air from fans installed on the noodle line.

The noodle strands are cut to a certain length with rotary blade and vegetables oil (about 2% of noodle weight) is sprayed or dripped onto noodle strands and well mixed to prevent noodles form sticking together.

Noodles are then placed in plastic bags for storage or delivered to retail outlet. The most important quality characteristics of these noodles are good color and smooth surface.

For good consumer acceptance they must be white or light yellow, depending on preferences in different regions. They have a limited shelf life and a very prone to enzymatic darkening because of the activity of enzyme polyp0henoloxidase.
Wet noodle processing