Oriental Noodles

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					                                Oriental Noodles
                          Present and Future Perspectives

Noodles of different kinds together with boiled rice have been the staple food of
almost all Asian countries. Since noodles are always in the form of long strands, they
are symbolic of longevity and are always present in Chinese birthday parties. There
are different ways of consuming them as well as different recipes available at
different countries. Most of these noodles are consumed hot as in soup, like a pasta
plate or stir-fried with meat, shrimps and vegetables. Others are consumed cold like
in the case of some soba dishes in Japan. Also, there are numerous types that
depend on the raw materials, product shapes, processing methods and the way of
preparation and serving. However, they have also undergone changes driven by
technical innovations and consumer demands.

The manufacture of noodles can be traced back about 1,200 years ago and still an
object of debate whether the Chinese or the Italians invented it first. Nowadays,
different kinds of oriental noodles can be found in almost every parts of the world,
from North America to South America and from Africa to as far as the Oceania.
However, the most popular of them is the instant ramen introduced by Momufuku
Ando of Nissin Food Products as chicken ramen in 1957. The global market for
ramen noodles alone according to the International Ramen Manufacturer’s
Association (IRMA) is worth 15 billion US dollars (as of Nov 2001) or equivalent to 48
billion servings with China as the biggest market worth 15.9 billion servings/annum
followed by Indonesia at 9.3 billion servings and then Japan at 5.2 billion servings.
This market is continuously expanding. One of the main reason for this is the
demographic changes which can be attributed to the fact that the world is getting
smaller and smaller due to the great progress in transportation and
telecommunication. More people nowadays have been exposed to the Asian culture
either by going to Asian countries to conduct business or simply for pleasure or it can
also be due to the immigration of Asians to the occident bringing with them part of
their cultures. Economics plays also an important role since food based on noodles
can be easily afforded by people in the low-income bracket. Moreover, a dish
containing oriental noodles can be a complete and nutritious meal.

Noodles can be classified according to different parameters such as type of raw
materials used in their manufacture, the type of manufacturing method used, the form
of the product on the market and the size of the noodle strands.
Raw materials used
1. Wheat flour based
   a. Japanese type
      Japanese noodles such as somen, hiyamugi, udon, and hiramen are generally
      white or creamy in colour and have a rather soft texture. They are made from
      soft wheat flour of medium protein content of about 8-10% and with about
      0.33-0.45% ash (0.36-0.40% ash for a more intense colour), water and salt.
   b. Chinese type
      There are many types chinese noodles such miantiao, namamen, ramen,
      chukamen, and chuka-soba. They are mostly light yellow in colour and have a
      rather slightly stiff or springy texture. Hard wheat flour is the main raw material
      and is used together with water and “kansui” (a mixture of alkaline salts).
      There are other noodles such as dan mien, chow mein and lo mein which uses
      eggs together with the flour to have an added flavour, colour and body to the
      product. Hard wheat flour with about 10.5-12.0% protein and about 0.33-
      0.38% ash is the preferred main raw material.
   c. Buckwheat noodles
      These noodles also known as soba (from sobaku which means buckwheat)
      with a very unique taste and very popular in Japan and Korea are made a
      mixture of buckwheat flour, wheat flour and water. Ratios of wheat flour to
      buckwheat flour varies according to the type of product. Buckwheat is actually
      not a wheat variety but a plant of the annual broad leaf crop originally from
      Central Asia. The flour is obtained by milling the seed which has a very good
      nutritional value such as high digestibility, lysine content which is about
      threefold of that of wheat, high mineral content, and unusually high lecithin

2. Non-wheat flour based
   a. Rice vermicelli
      There are many non-wheat base noodles existing in Asia. The most common
      and most popular especially in Southeast Asia is the rice vermicelli; mi fen or
      mee fun in China, bifun or maifun in Japan, beehoon in Singapore and
      Malaysia, sen mee in Thailand, bahn hoi in Vietnam and bihon in the
      Philippines. Rice is the main ingredient used however, not all types or varieties
      of rice will give a good quality product. Rice with a rather high amylose content
      is preferred. In some countries like the Philippines, corn starch is either added
      to the rice or used completely to substitute the rice used for the production of
      this noodle. The process for making this type of noodles differs from that of the
      wheat-based noodles. Primarily, extrusion of the wet dough rather than
      sheeting is used during processing. The extruded noodles will then be fully
      cooked by steaming from about 60 up to 120 minutes. After cooking, they are
      allowed to cool down at room temperature. During this process of slow
      cooling, retrogradation of starch occurs which will lead to a noodle with very
      low cooking losses. After cooling the noodles are then rinsed with water and
      then folded and portioned. The portioned noodles will then be dried to about
      11% moisture. They can be served in hot soup or soaked in hot water and
      then stir-fried with meat, shrimps and vegetables.
      Rice sticks
      Rice sticks or ho fun in China, sen lek in Thailand, kuey teow in Malaysia, and
      bahn pho in Vietnam are basically the same as rice vermicelli only that they
      come in many shapes and sizes and can be classified as thin, medium, and
      wide. The thinner ones are normally used for soup while the wider ones for
      stir-frying. Like the vermicelli they should be soaked in hot water until they’re
      soft before use.
   b. Glass noodles
      These types of noodles also called as bean threads, cellophane noodles,
      shining noodles or crystal noodles, are so-called as such due to their
      transparency very similar to that of glass. They are widely used throughout
      China and Southeast Asia. They are made from mung-bean starch or potato
      starch (to lower the price) and called as fen si or fen szu in China, woon sen in
      Thailand, tanghoon in Malaysia, bun tao in Vietnam, su un in Indonesia or
      sotanghon in the Philippines. Some even use sweet potato starch called as
      dangmyun or tangmyon in Korea. The process principle is very much similar to
      that of the rice noodles. The starch has to be fully cooked, cooled to
      retrograde, and then dried.
      Other noodles that are quite similar to the glass noodles are seaweed noodles,
      yam noodles or sirataki in Japan, tapioca sticks or hu tieu bot loc in Vietnam,
      and the tofu or soy noodles called gan si in China.

Manufacturing methods used for wheat flour based noodles
1. Hand-made
   Hand-made or hand-pulled noodles are those unique Chinese noodles whereby
   the process is purely manual which includes the repeated stretching and swinging
   of the dough by hand to form the strands. They normally remain firm and have
   less cooking losses. It is believed that the resting or maturing is the main reason
   for the improved cooking qualities of these hand-made noodles. One speciality, is
   longxu mian or the dragon beard noodles which is hand-pulled but are made
   extremely fine. They are so fine that it has been calculated that a dough with 1.5
   kilograms of wheat flour can make 144,000 hair-thin noodles each 17 cm long for
   a total length equivalent to two kilometers. The difference between manually and
   mechanically made so-men noodles have been studied by Ogawa (1975, 1985)
   while the mechanism involved during maturing has been studied by Niihara et al
   (1980, 1981, 1984).
2. Machine- made
   The development of noodle making machine by T. Masaki in 1884 revolutionized
   the manufacture of noodles. The basic process for wheat noodle making using
   machineries consists of the mixing of the raw materials, dough sheeting, the
   combining of two sheets, rolling and cutting. During the mixing process, 100 parts
   of lour flour is mixed with about 2-3 parts of salt or “kansui” and from 28 to 45
   parts of water. In some countries gelling agents such as food gums, alginates,
   and potato starch are added to control the texture of the finished products.
   “kansui” is a mixture of sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate with about
   10% sodium phosphate and it gives the noodles a characteristic bright yellow
   colour. However, an improper ratio of sodium and potassium carbonates can lead
   to and undesirable reddish or greenish colour. Normally salt and/or “kansui” is
   dissolved in water and the quantity depends on the type of product. For example
   dry noodles need more salt than boiled noodles. During winter, less salt is added
   to the dough. During mixing, the salt or “kansui” solution is mixed thoroughly into
   the flour and continuously kneaded to obtain a uniform dough. Mixing should be
   done in a way that gluten develops properly and the temperature of the dough
   does not increase significantly. After mixing, the dough is allowed to rest for stress
   relaxation to be able to roll it smoothly.
   The rested dough is then divided and each allowed to pass through a pair of rolls
   to form a sheet. The two sheets are then combined and passed though a second
   roll by which the gap has been adjusted to get the original thickness of a single
   sheet. The purpose of this sheet combination is to further develop gluten during
   the compression of the dough. The sheet is then allowed to pass a series of rolls
   (from three to five pair of rolls) with decreasing roll gaps for the gradual reduction
   of the sheet thickness which varies according to the type of noodle being made. It
   can be about 2 to 4 mm for Japanese noodles and 1.3 to 2 mm for Chinese
   noodles. The reduction of the thickness should be gradual since abrupt reduction
   can damage the gluten network. The sheet is then cut into strands for further
   processing when necessary.

Types of noodles in the market
The noodle strands coming out from the pair of cutting rolls are processed into
different kinds of noodles such as:
a. Uncooked wet noodles (nama-men)
   These are the most popular form of Chinese noodles which are normally sold
   to retail shops and restaurants fresh and uncooked.
b. Dried noodles (kan-men)
   These are the dried version of the uncooked wet noodles more popular in
   Japan rather than in China. Drying of the noodles is done through strictly
   controlled conditions. Normally they are dried at a rather low temperatures,
   say 35-40°C with relative humidity of about 70-75% and long drying times of
   several hours, say up to 5 hours in case of Japanese udon. After drying the
   noodles are cooled to room temperature.
c. Boiled noodles (yude-men)
   There are basically two types of the boiled noodles.
   1) Completely packed boiled noodles
      These are noodles that are obtained by cooking wet noodles in boiling
      water at a pH of about 5.5-6.0 for about 10-25 minutes depending on the
      textural requirements of the product. They are packed either in a very
      simple way giving the product a very limited shelf-life or in a completely
      packed version with the addition of organic acids such as lactic or acetic
      acids. Subsequent post-packaging treatment for more than 40 minutes at a
      temperature more than 90°C is also applied for a much longer shelf-life
      (more than three months).
   2) Frozen boiled noodles
      These noodles are obtained through the process of very rapid freezing of
      the noodles immediately after cooking using a temperature of about –30°C
      or even –40°C. With this process the fresh taste of the boiled noodles are
      kept for a long period. At the noodles restaurants where the frozen noodles
      are delivered, the dishes are prepared by thawing these noodles for 1
      minute in a specially designed boiling pot.
d. Chinese-type steamed noodle
   Chinese-type steamed noodles require very efficient steaming since the final
   quality of the product is very much dependent on this operation. Steaming
   times depends on the type of noodles and can vary from about 100 seconds to
   as long as 240 seconds for the instant noodles and even up to as long as 60
   minutes for the non-instant noodles like Chow Mein. Most of these noodles are
   then packed in polyethylene bags. However, especially designed cups or
   bowls made of materials with very low thermal conductivity have also been
   used particularly for the instant types.
   1) Seasoned fried instant noodle
          These are noodles that have been sprayed with some seasonings before
          drying by frying. Frying temperature is usually within the range of 135°C to
          150°C and for about 2-3 minutes. The seasoning is absorbed by the
          noodles giving it a unique internal flavour.
       2) Non-seasoned fried instant noodle
          These noodles are fried without the application of sesonings. Sachet of
          flavours, oil and even soy sauce are added to the pack of noodles during
          packaging. Oil content varies from 18-22%.
       3) Non-fried instant noodles
          These noodles are basically the same as the noodles mentioned
          previously but dried by hot blast drying instead of frying. In this way, the fat
          content of the product is maintained at a very minimum level.

Size of the noodle strands
Noodles are generally flat due to the processing type which uses rolls to form the
sheet from the dough. Round versions are also available particularly with the non-
wheat based type but wheat-based noodles for which special rounded cutters have
been used can also be found. Nisshin Flour Milling Company of Japan even
developed a noodle which requires very short cooking time. They have made some
depressions on the cross-section of the noodle strands which close during boiling.
Thus allowing the boiling water to penetrate easily into the core of the noodles
allowing it to cook faster.
1. Very thin - width varies from about 1.0 – 1.2 mm
2. Thin – width varies from 1.3 – 1.7 mm
3. Standard (Udon) – width varies from 2.0 – 3.8 mm
4. Flat – width varied from 5.0 – 7.5 mm

Manufacturing method used for non-wheat noodles
1. Rice Noodles
   The manufacturing method for the production of rice noodles starts with the
   overnight soaking of the indica type rice grains. The purpose of this operation is
   to loosen the crystalline structure of the starch agglomerates so that each starch
   granule will seperate during the wet milling operation. During this operation the
   rice grain together with the soaking water are fed to horizontal stone mill which
   grind the grain to get the rice slurry. This slurry then passes to a sieve to separate
   the non-starch component such as protein, non-soluble fibers and other impurities
   from the starch component. The starch slurry is then fed to a vacuum rotary filter
   to obtain a cake with a reduced moisture content of about 40%. This rice cake is
   either extruded to form small cylindrical pellets and subsequently passed through
   a steaming tunnel or broken into very small chunks and then fed to a mixer
   whereby steam are injected. In both cases, the purpose of this hydrothermal
   treatment is to provoke the partial gelatinisation of the starch granules. This partial
   starch gelatinisation is a very important step and must be done under controlled
   conditions since under steaming will lead to noodles that will not hold during
   extrusion. On the other hand over steaming will lead to excessive shear stress
   and die swelling during extrusion. Extrusion is done at a very low pressure using a
   cold extrusion press fitted with a horizontal die having holes of about 0.50-0.55
   mm in diameter. The extruded strands are then hanged in canes or folded in pre-
   formed containers for a second steaming. Steaming to fully cook the starch
   granules is done either by batch in closed atmospheric chambers or in continuous
   steaming tunnels from about 60 minutes up to 120 minutes. After this
   hydrothermal treatment, the strands are allowed to slowly cool down to room
   temperature. During this cooling or aging process, the swollen starch granules
   reorganize among themselves through the process of retrogradation. Too rapid
   retrogradation will give a very stiff structure of the strands while a much slower
   rate will give a very elastic structure that you can bend or compress them without
   breaking. After cooling, the strands are rinsed with tap water and then removed
   from the canes for portioning. After portioning, the nests of noodles are then dried
   using high volume and speed of air at a temperature of about 60°C for about 60-
   90 minutes. They are then packed as bundles into big bags or in small pouches
   together with sachet of flavours and oil or soy sauce.
   In some places rice noodles particularly the flat ones are still made semi-
   manually by spreading very thinly (say about 1 mm) a rather liquid slurry on a flat
   belt conveyor. This conveyor enters then into a steaming chamber to allow the
   cooking of the slurry. The cooked slurry now in the form of a very thin sheet is
   then allowed to cool down and then transferred into cooling trays for further aging.
   This process will allow further retrogradation of the starch granules. The
   retrograded sheet which at this moment has acquired a very good consistency
   and firmness is then rinsed and cut into the desired width through slitting rolls and
   then hanged on canes or folded for drying.
2. Glass noodles
   The process for making glass noodles is basically the same principle as that for
   making rice noodles. The process starts by soaking overnight the mungbeans
   (vigna radiata L. Wilczek) to loosen the pericarp. The soaked beans are then
   ground by wet milling process using horizontal stone mills. The ground slurry is
   then filtered to remove the protein and the non-soluble fibers. It is then partially
   dried into a cake with about 40% moisture through a vacuum rotary filter. In some
   cases, the cake is further dried to a moisture content of about 12% and then
   hydrated to about 40% on the time of use. The wet cake is then broken into small
   chunks of dough and subsequently extruded at low pressure with the extruded
   strands going directly into a water bath with hot water (about 98°C or more).
   During this process, the starch granules are fully cooked. The cooked strands are
   then quenched with cold water in another water bath. The strands are then
   hanged on canes and frozen to fully retrograde the starch granules. After this
   process, the strands are cleaned and rinsed with tap water and then dried.

From what we have mentioned, we can consider that noodles are quite unique yet
versatile compared to other cereal products. The wide variety in taste and
preparation makes it very interesting to Asian diets. These Asian diets particularly the
“New Japanese-style diet” is continuously attracting consumers all over the world and
is being considered as among the secret of longevity. Although noodles are
traditional foods, the technical and technological innovations are continuously
evolving to adapt them to the global consumers of all ages. Recipes have been
modified and continuously adjusted to suit the taste of the consumers in many
countries. Production equipments have been improve, modernized, and up-graded
to guaranty efficient productivity. Production costs have been optimised to make it
affordable also for people in the developing nations. Product size has been modified
and continuously being adjusted to the tradition of the western world. New packaging
designs, new recipes and new way of preparation continuously appear on the market
to satisfy the eternal desire of consumers particularly the younger generation for
something new, something fulfilling and something good.

Luisito Virtucio
Pavan SpA
New Product Development Manager
R& D Center

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