Noodle products as basic foods are growing with the requirements of modern life. Furthermore, sensory attributes, which are well accepted by consumer, their low cost, ease of cooking and long shelf life compared with other foods have made them popular.
Noodles and noodle products are usually made from common wheat fine flour and generally prepared by a process of sheeting and cutting as opposed to pasta products, which are processed from coarse semolina milled from durum wheat by extrusion.
The appeal of noodle among consumers has made this food product a potential promoter for production of functional foods. Quality factors which are important for instant noodles including color, flavor, and texture, cooking quality, rehydration rates during final preparation, and the presence or absence of rancid taste after extended storage.
During boiling, the starch noodles absorb water, which the internal starch re-gelatinize. The starch noodles begin swelling, slowly becoming soft, elastic, smooth, and transparent after heating. Throughout this processing, small debris and soluble components of starch noodles continuously enter the water due to swelling, constituting the “cooking loss”.
Texture is one of the critical properties in considering quality evaluation of noodles. Elasticity, adhesiveness and firmness are the main parameters that are measured in texture evaluation of noodle. Japanese people consumed noodles with smooth, soft and elastic texture but Chinese and Korea preferred firmer texture.
Cooking Noodles
