2001 AACC Annual Meeting Charlotte, North Carolina October 14-18, 2001 Charlotte Convention Center

In order to strengthen Taiwan's global competitiveness for fried instant noodles new industrial technologies involving the utilization of vacuum mixers, steam chamber upgrades, modification of dough recipes, noodle steaming conditions, and dough mixing technologies were adopted. The new manufacture lines, employing the new technologies were put into production in June, 2001. The specific features of the product made from the new lines were: (1) chewiness and elasticity of the fried instant noodle after boiled water reconstitution; (2) noodle reconstitution quality became more robust with respect to prolonged time after reconstitution at 3 minutes; (3) significant quality improvement was obtained even using flours with higher ash content (up to 0.65%); (4) the production capacity and profit were also increased to a satisfactory level. The new technologies were also focussed on the independent control of the microstructure of the fried instant noodle. Various methods were used to produce steamed noodles with different rheological properties. Microstructure of fried samples were analyzed using image analysis. The results indicated a significant correlation between air cell expansion ratio and the parameter of instantaneous elastic modulus (E). Additionally, the application of new technologies in the manufacture of non-fried instant noodles were introduced. They involved the utilization of the water gradient distribution as well as the rheological properties during noodle cooking. The water cooking-steaming method was derived to increase both the gelatinization degree and elasticity of non-fried instant noodles after reconstitution. Noodles which were then subjected to a 2-step humidity-control drying operation allowing the product to be reconstituted with boiled water in 3 minutes yet having better consumption quality.