Manufacturing of macaroni

Macaroni is made from durum or other wheat. The U.S standard for noodle requires the addition of 5.5 percent egg and egg yolk.

The production process for macaroni consist of adding water to semolina, farina, flour and other ingredients to form stiff dough with about 30 percent moisture. Semolina, which is generally used in the manufacture of macaroni, is the purified middlings of durum wheat. Farina is the purified middlings of hard wheat other than durum and is often blended with semolina in the manufacturers of macaroni products.

These ingredients are mixed together for a short period of time, unloading the dough to obtain a plastic, homogenous mass.The doughs are blended in continuous mixers where dry ingredient feeders and metering pumps deliver the correct ration of the recipe.

The dough then is extrude through a die into various shapes and forms under 1,500 – 2, 000 psi pressures at 130 – 140 °F. The purpose of extruder is to knead the semolina/water dough and deliver it uniformly to the die.

The wet macaroni products are then dried at 95 – 122 °F to 1o-12 percent moisture. Some of the chief macaroni products are as follows: Macaroni, spaghetti, egg noodles, elbow macaroni, elbow noodles, alphabets, numerals and shells.

Most macaroni products were made by a batch process. That is the semolina and water were weighed and combined in a mixer of about 300 lbs capacity.
Manufacturing of macaroni