Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Preparation of product which is dry in final form
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-17
2001-05-01
Bhat, Nina (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Preparation of product which is dry in final form
C426S455000, C426S456000, C426S557000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06224931
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing dry noodles. The term “noodles” will be used throughout in a wide sense to include pastas, Japanese noodles, Chinese noodles and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
When cooked, dry noodles, such as fried noodles, hot-air dried noodles, freeze-dried noodles, etc., usually have a different feel in the mouth than traditional noodles, and rarely match the requirements of today's consumers who desire an authentic taste. They differ from raw noodles particularly in the aspects of “firmness”, “glutinosity” and “smoothness/swallowability”. Furthermore, while efforts have been made to develop many different soups that can match the varied preferences of today's consumers, there has not been a similar diversification in the noodles themselves, and this situation is believed to occur because the method of rehydrating with hot water, for example, is an impediment to diversification of the noodles themselves.
Another problem which occurs during processing is that the noodle strands adhere to each other after cooking (pregelatinization). Such adhesion between noodle strands has a major adverse effect during processing such as water treatment, flavoring, acidifying, frying, hot air drying, etc. which follows the cooking (pregelatinization) of the noodle strands, while the disadvantage of poor loosening also occurs even when hot water is added for rehydration of the noodles after they have been so processed, and therefore no satisfactory solution has yet been achieved.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of producing dry noodles which allows a fast hot rehydration (restoration) time, which allows production of a wide variety of noodle shapes such as thick noodles, and which endows the noodles with glutinosity and smoothness or improves the adhesion between noodle strands during the process, making it possible to improve their loosening upon hot rehydration.
As a result of diligent research aimed at achieving the object stated above, the present inventors have found that a solution can be obtained by treating dry noodles with water-soluble hemicellulose at some point during the process of producing the noodles. The present invention has been completed on the basis of this finding.
In other words, the present invention is a method of producing dry noodles which includes treatment of the noodles with water-soluble hemicellulose prior to drying.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The dry noodles in the invention can be prepared using a common dry noodle raw material, and the raw farina used may be any type of flour such as wheat flour, rice flour, buckwheat flour, corn starch, potato starch or tapioca starch, either alone or in admixture. As starch there may be used raw starch or processed starch such as pregelatinized starch or etherified starch.
According to the invention, one method for treating the noodles with water-soluble hemicellulose involves adding the water-soluble hemicellulose to the noodle dough. The method of addition to the noodle dough can be addition of powdered water-soluble hemicellulose prior to kneading of the raw farina and kneading water, or alternatively the water-soluble hemicellulose may be dissolved together with cold water or various salts in the kneading water and added as a water-soluble hemicellulose solution for kneading with the raw flour.
The appropriate amount of water-soluble hemicellulose to be combined with the raw farina will change depending on the type of raw flour and the amount and nature of the structural additives, but generally speaking it is 0.1-5.0 wt %, and preferably 0.2-2.0 wt % with respect to the raw flour. This addition to the dough can give an effect of more rapid hot rehydration of the dry noodles, and provide glutinosity and smoothness (a slippery feel). If the amount is too low it will be difficult to achieve this effect, and if it is too high the feel in the mouth, taste, etc. of the dry noodles will be poor.
According to the invention, another method of treating the noodles with water-soluble hemicellulose involves dissolving or dispersing the water-soluble hemicellulose in a treatment liquid for water treatment, acidifying, flavoring, etc. to be carried out after cooking (pregelatinization) of the noodle strands, and then immersing or spraying the noodles with the treatment liquid. Performing such treatment will improve adhesion between noodle strands and allow better loosening upon hot rehydration, and such treatment can also be carried out in combination with the aforementioned addition of water-soluble hemicellulose to the noodle dough.
The amount of addition of water-soluble hemicellulose to the treatment liquid will change depending on the type of treatment liquid and the amount and nature of the structural additives, but generally speaking it is 0.02-20 wt %, preferably 0.5-10 wt %, and more preferably 1.0-5.0 wt % with respect to the treatment liquid. If the amount is too low it will be difficult to achieve this effect, and if it is too high the feel in the mouth, taste, etc. of the dry noodles will be poor.
The water-soluble hemicellulose in the invention is preferably derived from oily seeds or grains, and especially from beans, particularly soybeans.
The water-soluble hemicellulose is hemicellulose, derived from a plant, which is soluble in water, and it has an average molecular weight (the value determined by the limiting viscosity method of measuring the viscosity in a 0.1 M NaNO
3
solution with standard pullulan (sold by Showa Denko, KK.) as the standard substance) of 50,000 to 1,000,000, and preferably 100,000 to 400,000.
Suitable water-soluble hemicellulose comprises the constituent sugars rhamnose, fucose, arabinose, xylose, galactose, glucose and uronic acid. However, depending on the average molecular weight or type of plant, it is appropriate even if either or both rhamnose or fucose are absent, or if it contains mannose and fructose. The uronic acid is measured by the Blumenkrantz method, and the neutral sugars are measured by GLC after alditol acetate conversion.
The water-soluble hemicellulose can be water-extracted from hemicellulose-containing raw material, and in some cases eluted by heating under alkali conditions or eluted by decomposition with enzymes. The following is an example of a method of producing water-soluble hemicellulose.
Specifically, the raw material used may be a plant material, such as oily seeds of, for example soybean, palm, coconut, corn, cottonseed, etc. with the oil or protein removed, or the lees of grains, for example rice or wheat, from which the starch has been removed. When the raw material is soybeans, okara (bean-curd refuse) may be used as a by-product from preparation of tofu (bean curd) and soybean milk or separated soybean protein.
These starting materials may be subjected to heat extraction at a temperature preferably of from 80° C. to 130° C., and more preferably from 100° C. to 130° C., under either acidic or alkali conditions but preferably at a pH near the isoelectric point of each protein, and after separation of the water-soluble fraction, it may be dried directly or preferably subjected to activated carbon treatment, resin adsorption treatment or ethanol precipitation to remove the hydrophobic substances or low molecular substances, and then dried to yield the desired water-soluble hemicellulose.
According to the invention, the water-soluble hemicellulose may be used alone or in combination with other quality enhancers or additives as deemed suitable. As other quality enhancers and additives there may be mentioned oily substances including common animal oils and the oil-soluble vitamin tocopherol; saccharides such as sucrose, maltose and trehalose; polysaccharide hydrolysates, including sugar alcohol, dextrin, glue plant (funori), agar, carrageenan, furcellaran, tamarind seed polysaccharides, angelica gum, karaya gum, pectin, xanthan gum, sodium alginate, tragacanth gum, guar gum, loc
Maeda Hirokazu
Nakamura Akihiro
Narimatsu Hiroki
Sato Yoko
Yasunara Tomoko
Bhat Nina
Fuji Oil Co., Ltd.
Wallenstein & Wagner Ltd.
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