CN1605271A - Method for manufacturing instant noodles and instant noodles series - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a method for producing instant noodles, comprising four steps in the following order: (a) a step of preparing gelatinized noodles with a moisture content of 65% or more, (b) a step of freezing the noodles, (c) making A step of preparing the above-mentioned noodles at a temperature of 30°C or higher and lower than 50°C to obtain noodles in a thawed state with a moisture content lower than the above-mentioned moisture content before freezing, and (d) placing the above-mentioned noodles at a temperature of 30°C or higher and lower than 50°C. The process of making noodles with a moisture content of 20% or less at a temperature of 60°C.

Description

Manufacturing method of instant noodles and instant noodles

technical field

The present invention relates to a method for producing instant noodles which are frozen and dried at a low temperature after gelatinization of noodles, and instant noodles produced by the method.

Background technique

Due to the low moisture content, instant noodles have excellent preservation properties. When eating, you only need to add boiling water, or cook for about 2 minutes, and then you can eat them after reconstitution, which is extremely convenient. However, for instant fried noodles, the noodles have a very porous structure due to puffing when fried and dried, resulting in a mouthfeel without a strong texture. On the other hand, the usual instant non-fried noodles, because they are dried with hot air, the noodles are relatively homogeneous all the way to the center, and do not have the strong texture of fried noodles, but have a film-covered texture on the surface of the noodles. The texture of cooked raw noodles is far away, and the noodles are easy to stick to each other. In addition, instant noodles are evenly dried noodles, and in order to make them recover quickly and evenly when eaten, the noodles must be wrinkled, which also makes their appearance and texture different from raw noodles.

In order to make up for such shortcomings, as a method of making instant noodles with a texture close to that of cooked raw noodles, there are methods of cooling gelatinized noodles to close to 0°C and then keeping them at ice temperature, or at ice temperature or very close to ice temperature. Warm and low temperature drying method. For example, the methods described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 64-85061 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 1-137946. However, in the case of such a method, it is difficult to cool the gelatinized high-temperature noodles and keep them stably in the ice temperature range, and when the ice temperature is kept, the surface of the noodle block dries and forms frozen spots, which may cause quality deterioration. shortcoming.

The inventors of the present invention did not use the method of keeping at ice temperature, but tried to rapidly freeze the gelatinized noodles, keep them frozen for a while, and then thaw them, or dry them at an extremely low temperature after thawing, so as to overcome the problem of surface drying of the noodles. At the same time, it also improves the chewiness and texture of the noodles, which proves that the noodles whose quality is maintained at ice temperature can be made better than the noodles made.

Japanese patent publication No. 1-153055, Japanese patent publication No. 1-225454, and Japanese patent publication No. 3-280850 have disclosed the production of noodles with such gelatinization, freezing, thawing, and drying processes. method. Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-153055 is a method of drying at ice temperature after freezing, Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-225454 is a method of slowly freezing and drying in sunlight at ice temperature, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-280850 No. is a method of thawing under high-humidity conditions of 15-18°C after quick freezing, and then drying at this temperature. However, drying at a very low temperature after freezing in this way requires an extremely long time for the drying process, which reduces productivity and cannot streamline the manufacturing process. According to the inventor's test, in the case of noodles cut with a knife blade No. 20, the level is much higher than that of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-153055, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-225454, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 3- No. 280850 needs about 14 hours at a wind speed of 1m/s and a humidity of about 20g/ ^m3 in order to dry to the point where it can be stored as instant noodles under the drying conditions of 30°C, and about 14 hours at a wind speed of 3m/s. 7 hours, as for the method of Japanese Patent Publication No. P1-153055, it takes at least about 1 week. Moreover, the methods of the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Publication No. 64-85061, Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-137946, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-153055 are extremely difficult to control the temperature due to the narrow allowable temperature range, and the quality It is also prone to deviation.

Contents of the invention

The object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing instant noodles having the texture and texture of boiled raw noodles and having such a noodle quality and shortening the drying time of the gelatinized noodles.

In order to achieve the above object, the method for producing instant noodles of the present invention is a method for producing instant noodles comprising the following steps in the following order: a step of preparing gelatinized noodles with a moisture content of more than 65%, preferably 70-75% ( a), the step of freezing the above-mentioned noodles (b), the step of preparing the above-mentioned noodles at a temperature of 30° C. or higher and lower than 50° C. to obtain thawed noodles with a moisture content lower than the moisture content before freezing (c) ), and the step (d) of making the above noodles at a temperature above 30° C. and below 60° C. to prepare noodles with a moisture content of 20% or less. According to this method, high-quality instant noodles can be produced, which have the cooking feeling like boiled raw noodles, the noodles have chewiness and texture, the noodles are easy to unravel, and the boiling water is difficult to make them stretch. Moreover, the time required for drying can be shortened, and the drying time until the final instant noodles are obtained can be controlled within 4 hours to 6 hours.

And step (c) and step (d) can be carried out continuously at the same temperature, but the temperature of step (d) is raised to be higher than the temperature of step (c) to dry, can shorten drying time, is comparatively ideal. Here, at the end of the step (c), the noodles are dried to a state where the water content is less than that before freezing, and are in a thawed state. In the case of drying frozen noodles at a temperature of 30° C. or higher and lower than 50° C. in the atmosphere without dehumidification, etc., the moisture content of the noodles increases by about 0.5 to 1% at a time when thawing. It is considered that the temperature of the frozen noodles is low, that is, the noodles absorb moisture through an action similar to the so-called dew condensation. However, if the moisture content that rises is reduced, the moisture content is reduced to the moisture content before freezing, and it becomes a thawed state. , After that, the drying temperature is raised to about 60°C, which hardly affects the quality.

Therefore, because it can be dried at a temperature of 50° C. or higher and lower than 60° C. that cannot be used in the step (c) in the step (d), the resulting product has almost the same quality as the 30° C. or higher and lower than 50° C. The same high-quality noodles when continuously dried at a certain temperature of ℃, and further shorten the drying time required to make the final instant noodles to less than 4 hours, and finally shortened to less than 3 hours, making the manufacturing process flow homework becomes possible.

In the present invention, the step (a) of preparing gelatinized noodles with a moisture content of 65% or more, preferably 70-75%, in the above-mentioned production method can be carried out through the treatment of cooking noodles, and it can be carried out sufficiently. Cooking to achieve this moisture content can give instant noodles a less-cooked texture and remove unnatural waviness. On the other hand, if the moisture content of the noodles before freezing is low, the reconstitution by adding boiling water at the time of eating becomes poor, resulting in a dry texture with no cooking feeling.

In the above-mentioned production method, it is desirable to dry the final moisture content to 12% or less, preferably 10% or less in the step (d). By drying the noodles to this moisture content, sufficient storage characteristics required for instant noodles can be imparted. However, if the moisture content is reduced to 20% or less by drying at a temperature lower than 60°C, it is also possible to set the temperature in the drying chamber at 60°C or higher, and then perform drying to impart the desired storage characteristics of instant noodles as further drying. The process (e). This is because, if the moisture content reaches 20% or less in the drying state in the step (d), under the usual hot air drying conditions, that is, further raising the temperature to 60°C or higher, drying at a high temperature will also affect the surface quality. Almost no effect. Thus, it can be shortened more than the drying time required for direct drying to the final product under the temperature conditions of process (d).

The instant noodles produced by the above-mentioned production methods have the texture and texture of boiled raw noodles, and the taste and texture become better. However, because the drying temperature is low when the moisture content of the noodles after gelatinization is high, depending on the situation, sometimes After drying, the number of viable bacteria in the product is high. Especially when there is a water-cooling process for noodles or a process for absorbing flavor liquid into noodles after gelatinization, when the temperature is below 60°C, the number of bacteria adhering to noodles may become very high, and sometimes it is desirable to carry out Treatment to control the number of viable bacteria (hereinafter also referred to as "bacteriostatic"). However, dry heat treatment of noodles after drying is also difficult to obtain antibacterial effect, and in the drying process of each of the above-mentioned production methods, if the temperature is increased when the moisture content of noodles is high, the desired effect of cooked noodles cannot be obtained. The taste is good, and the noodles are knotted with each other, which is not easy to untie.

Therefore, in each of the methods for producing instant noodles according to the present invention, the step (f) of heating the noodles with steam may be added after the step (d) of reducing the moisture content to 20% or less. By having this step (f), it is possible to maintain the quality and flavor of the noodle produced by low-temperature drying, and at the same time suppress the number of live bacteria in the noodles as a product. Inhibition of the number of viable bacteria (bacteriostasis) refers to suppressing the number of viable bacteria below a certain level, including reducing the number of viable bacteria and preventing it from increasing above a certain level. Steam heating (hereinafter also referred to as "cooking") as used in this specification refers to cooking noodles with saturated steam at or above 100°C or superheated steam at or near this temperature. "Low-temperature drying" as used herein refers to drying at a temperature of 60° C. or lower in most of the drying steps as in the above-mentioned production method of the present invention.

The time for the retort treatment in the step (f) is preferably from 10 seconds to less than 3 minutes, particularly preferably from 15 seconds to less than 2 minutes. Through such a short-time treatment, compared with uncooked noodles, the number of live bacteria can be reduced to less than 1/100-1/10000.

In addition, in the above-mentioned step (f), if the moisture content of the noodles is reduced to 20% or less through the above-mentioned step (d), the step (f) that is the next step can be entered, but it is also possible to reduce the moisture content after the step (d). After the temperature becomes 20%, the temperature is increased and the drying treatment is carried out, and then the step (f) is carried out. That is, between steps (d) and (f), there may be a step (g) of drying the noodles whose moisture content is reduced to 20% or less by the step (d) at a temperature of 60° C. or higher.

In the method for producing instant noodles mentioned above, after the step (a) of preparing the gelatinized noodles and before the step (b) of freezing the noodles, there is a step of contacting the gelatinized noodles at a temperature below 60°C. Step (h) of the solution. The step of contacting the noodles with the solution is a step of cooling the noodles before low-temperature drying, flavoring the noodles, or applying a loosening improver, dipping the noodles in the solution, or spraying the solution on the noodles. As mentioned above, when the temperature of the solution adhering to gelatinized noodles is below 60°C, the number of viable bacteria in the noodles will increase significantly in many cases. The low-temperature drying instant noodles in the process of contacting the gelatinized noodles are particularly preferable.

After the step (f) of heating the noodles with the steam, there may be a step (i) of drying the noodles so that the water content of the noodles becomes 12% or less. By reducing the water content of the noodles to 12% or less, preferably 10% or less, instant noodles can be obtained which have storage properties and can be stored at room temperature for several months or more. At the same time, even if the drying process in step (i) is at a temperature above 60°C, it will not have a great impact on the noodle quality, and the noodle quality as a low-temperature dried noodle can be maintained. The drying treatment in the step (i) is performed at a temperature of °C or higher.

In addition, in the present invention, superheated steam can also be used to carry out the step (f) of heating noodles with steam. "Superheated steam" in this specification refers to steam that directly heats atmospheric pressure saturated steam to 100° C. or higher, and has an effect of drying noodles due to its high temperature. By using superheated steam of 100°C or higher, noodles can be dried while consuming steam. Therefore, in this case, noodles having a moisture content of 12% or less, preferably 10% or less can be obtained by heating the noodles whose moisture content has been reduced to 20% or less by step (d) with superheated steam. According to this method, fully dried noodles can be obtained without drying after cooking. In the case of this method, it is also possible to maintain low-temperature dry noodle quality and suppress the number of viable bacteria in noodles.

According to the present invention, in the step (f) of heating noodles with steam, if the moisture content of the noodles before heating is below 12%, preferably below 10%, after the step (f) even if it does not increase, the purpose is to obtain The above-mentioned step (i) of storage performance of instant noodles may also impart storage performance as instant noodles. Furthermore, even if the steam heating in the step (f) is performed with saturated steam instead of superheated steam, storage performance as instant noodles can be imparted in some cases. That is, when the water content of the noodles has been reduced to 12% or less, preferably 10% or less by the step (d) or the step (g), in the step (f) of heating the noodles with steam, the water content of the noodles is maintained. By heating at 12%, the desired instant noodles of the present invention subjected to bacteriostatic treatment can be produced.

The above object, other objects, features and advantages of the present invention can be understood from the detailed description of the following preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of the instant noodle manufacturing method of the first embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of the instant noodle manufacturing method of the second embodiment.

Detailed ways

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

first embodiment

1st Embodiment relates to the manufacturing method of instant noodles. Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for manufacturing instant noodles according to a first embodiment. Hereinafter, this embodiment will be specifically described in the order of manufacturing steps.

First, make raw noodles (St1). As the raw material of the noodles used in this embodiment, wheat flour, starch, buckwheat flour, various grain flours, etc., which are the main raw materials, can be used. Egg whites and various thickeners, gluten, salt, salt water, coloring, etc. that are usually used in instant noodles can be added as auxiliary materials. These can be added as powder together with the main raw material, or dissolved or suspended in purified water. In ordinary instant Chinese noodles, in order to prevent salt spots during the drying process, the amount of salt water added cannot be increased compared with raw noodles, and there is a problem that it is difficult to obtain a unique taste of Chinese noodles. However, in the present invention, because the drying temperature is low, Salt spots are not easy to occur, and the amount of salt water added can be increased to the level of raw noodles. Therefore, when the Chinese noodles are used as the finished product, Chinese noodles with a more authentic flavor can be obtained.

In this embodiment, according to the conventional method of making instant noodles, the above-mentioned main raw materials, auxiliary raw materials and purified water are fully kneaded to make dough, which is rolled, cut out, or extruded through an extruder to obtain raw dough. Noodles are densely kneaded during kneading, noodle making, and extruding. Sometimes it is desired to improve the texture, and kneading and extrusion can be performed under reduced pressure or in a vacuum.

The resulting raw noodles are then gelatinized (St2). In this embodiment, the gelatinization is performed so that the moisture content becomes 65% or more, preferably 70%-75%. As a method of gelatinization, boiling can be carried out, and it is preferable to fully boil in boiling water. In the case of ordinary instant noodles, it is usually steamed for gelatinization, but usually the moisture content of steamed noodles is 30-35%, and it is difficult to reach 65%. Therefore, in the case of steaming, it can be combined with boiling, or steamed. Before and after or during the steaming process, the boiling water is fully contained in the noodles. A particularly good method can be steamed and then boiled to make the water content more than 65%, so that it can be fully gelatinized. Moisture content of 65% or more refers to the state in which raw noodles cut by the No. 20 blade are boiled for about 3 minutes, or the state is overcooked when eaten directly. By the way, the normal moisture content when raw noodles are boiled and eaten is about 60%.

Sufficient treatment is carried out by cooking so that the moisture content becomes 65% or more, preferably 70%-75%, even if it is instant noodles, the cooking texture like cooked raw noodles can be obtained, and unnatural ripples can be removed. On the other hand, if the water content is low, the recovery of the noodles by adding boiling water is poor when eating, and the noodles become dry and dry with no cooking feeling. As mentioned above, raw noodles are α-gelatinized, but it is not necessarily limited to raw noodles. Dry noodles or instant noodles can also be boiled to restore the moisture content to more than 65%, preferably 70%-75%.

Noodles with a moisture content of 65% or more through gelatinization can also be directly frozen by St4, but it is better to remove the sticky juice on the surface of the noodles, wash them with water, and cool them with water (liquid cutting). Or, for the taste and cooling of the noodles, and to improve the untie when eating, it is better to immerse the noodles in a solution containing salt, sodium glutamate, untie improver (lecithin or water-soluble hemicellulose), etc. Or spray the noodles with the solution to make them adsorb (St3). In general, in the case of low-temperature dried instant noodles, it is desired to obtain a high moisture content and a sufficiently gelatinized state through the cooking process as described above, so that sticking between noodles is likely to occur. Therefore, in the case of drying instant noodles at a low temperature, it is particularly preferable to attach a liquid containing an unraveling improving agent to the noodles.

For low-temperature drying to facilitate the impact on the number of viable bacteria in the final product, the water for washing and the flavoring liquid have a great influence, so it is better to use water or liquid with a small number of viable bacteria as these solutions. For water washing, the method of spraying channel water can be used, and when using the taste liquid (including the liquid containing only the unraveling improver), it is usually used to soak the noodles in the solution. The next few ways are common. Alternatively, spraying may be used, in which case the solution may also be replenished normally or in circulation. Therefore, the number of bacteria in the liquid will gradually increase when the flavoring liquid is used.

According to the inventor's knowledge, if the temperature of the flavoring liquid is usually set above 60°C, the number of viable bacteria in the liquid can be greatly reduced, but the cooling effect cannot be obtained above 60°C, and changes in flavor and noodle surface often occur. There is a temperature change. Therefore, in the case of drying instant noodles at low temperature, it is desirable not to set the flavoring liquid above 60°C to obtain good noodle quality. Bacteriostatic treatments are particularly effective. In addition, it may be considered to add ethanol and protamine and other bacteriostatic agents to the flavoring liquid (including liquids containing only unraveling improvers) and cooling water. In fact, although they can also be added, this situation often affects the flavor and taste .

Such noodles are frozen until the center is frozen (St4). In order to prevent the surface of the noodle from deteriorating due to drying and to shorten the time, freezing is preferably quick freezing. This method is the same as the usual method for making frozen noodles. The gelatinized noodles can be put into forming trays, 1 portion per tray, and placed in a freezer below -30° C., but other methods are also possible. If the freezing is not sufficient, it is difficult to have the unique texture of strong chewiness and high density. In addition, the frozen noodles are stored in the freezer for a long time, so that they can be evenly frozen into the inside of the noodles, which can further increase the density of the noodles.

According to the experimental data of the present inventor, the quality is the best after quick freezing and stored in the freezer (-10°C) for several days, so it is also possible to mass-produce the products of the previous process and store them in the freezer , Take it out when necessary, and carry out the following process. However, when the freezing start temperature is -35°C, after about 30 minutes, that is, the state of fully freezing to the center can obtain the expected noodle quality, so the production process can be streamlined, or the drying process can be carried out continuously after freezing. In this case, the freezing treatment can be performed until the center is definitely frozen (about 30 minutes in the case of -35°C).

In the present embodiment, the noodles that have been completely frozen as described above are dried at the temperature T1 as the first drying step and simultaneously thawed (St5). Wherein the temperature T1 is set at a temperature above 30°C and below 50°C. In the first drying step, the noodles are dried such that the water content A1 of the noodles is lower than the water content before freezing. When the frozen noodles are dried at a temperature above 30°C and below 50°C in the normal atmosphere without dehumidification treatment, specifically, when the drying treatment is carried out at a humidity of about 20g/ ^m3 , the thickness of the noodles when thawed Moisture content usually rises by about 0.5-1%. This is considered to be due to the low temperature of the frozen noodles, and when the noodles absorb the surrounding moisture, they undergo an action similar to dew condensation. In this way, since the water content of the noodles rises by about 0.5-1%, it takes a certain amount of time to dry the noodles to a state lower than the water content before freezing.

According to the experiment of the present inventor, the drying time to reach the moisture content before freezing depends on conditions such as humidity, air volume, and thickness of noodle pieces in the drying room. When the temperature in the drying room is 40°C, the humidity is 20g/m ³ , and the final noodle weight is 70 -75g, noodle thickness 2.5cm, about 15 minutes when the wind speed is 5m/s, about 20 minutes when the wind speed is 3m/s. When the wind speed is fast, the drying and thawing are fast. When considering the power consumption, etc., the wind speed is about 3-4m/s.

If the drying temperature in the first drying step is too low, it will take an extremely long time to dry, which will cause the proliferation of microorganisms in the noodles. On the other hand, if the temperature of the first drying process is fixed above 50°C, or the temperature is increased to above 50°C if the moisture content is not lower than the moisture content before freezing, the noodle quality will become the usual non-fried noodles with a film on the surface of the noodles. The noodle quality (hot air drying noodle) and the detachability of the noodle also deteriorated, and the desired noodle quality could not be obtained. When the temperature is raised to 50° C. or higher in an insufficiently thawed state, the noodle quality of the insufficiently thawed portion is the same as that of non-fried noodles. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is important to dry at a temperature of 30° C. or higher and lower than 50° C. so that the water content of the noodle pieces is lower than that before freezing until thawing.

Next, the noodles whose water content is lower than that at the time of freezing and thawed are dried at temperature T2 (St6) as a second drying step. The temperature T2 is set at 30°C or higher and lower than 60°C. In the second drying process, the noodles are dried until the moisture content A2 thereof becomes 20% or less. For noodles that have been thawed and the moisture content has become lower than the moisture content when frozen, since the drying process is carried out by raising the drying temperature to about 60°C, the quality will not change, and it may be about 60°C higher than the first drying process. temperature for drying. Therefore, when the moisture content of the noodles dried at a temperature of 30° C. or higher and lower than 50° C. in the first drying step and thawed is lower than that of freezing, the temperature can be raised higher than that of the first drying step, Continue drying at a temperature above 50°C and below 60°C as the second drying process. Compared with the case where the second drying step is continued at the same temperature as the first drying step, the drying time can be shortened, power consumption can be suppressed, and the line scale can be reduced.

According to the inventor's test, in order to dry the dough with a moisture content of about 70% at the end of the first drying process (the final dough weight is 70-75g, and the thickness of the dough is 2.5cm), in the second drying process, the drying condition wind speed is 3m. /s, humidity 20g/ ^m3 , to make the moisture content of noodles below 20%, it takes about 5 hours at 30°C (when the temperature does not increase), and it can be shortened to about 2 hours at 50°C. In addition, raising the drying temperature to 60° C. or higher in a state where the water content is not 20% or lower results in insufficient cooking texture and poor untieability.

The noodles subjected to the low-temperature drying treatment as above can be dried until the moisture content of the noodles is 12% or less, preferably 10% or less, if they are directly made into instant noodles for commercialization. If it is dried to this extent, there is no problem with the storage stability, and it can be packaged as it is and made into a product. Even if the moisture content does not reach below 12% or below 10%, the moisture content drops below 20%, and the temperature can be increased to dry above 60°C, and such drying will not have a great impact on the quality. As for the second embodiment having the third drying step of drying the noodles at a temperature of 60° C. or higher, it will be described below.

After the second drying step, it is preferable to perform cooking (St8) of heating noodles with steam. Cooking has a bacteriostatic effect on noodles. The steam cooking condition of the present invention is preferably that the steam flow rate in the steam chamber is set at about 100-800kg/m ³ /h, and the time is preferably relatively short, that is, longer than 10 seconds and less than 5 minutes, preferably longer than 10 seconds. Seconds and less than 3 minutes, particularly preferably longer than 15 seconds and less than 2 minutes. If it is less than 10 seconds, the antibacterial effect may not be sufficient, and if it is more than 5 minutes or the steam flow rate is large, steaming for more than 3 minutes may lose the quality of low-temperature dried instant noodles. In the case of cooking with superheated steam, it is sometimes desired to further dry the noodles through it, and the temperature of the superheated steam near the center of the steam chamber (the temperature at which the noodles contact) is preferably set at about 125-180°C.

In the retort step of St8, if the water content of the noodles is reduced to 20% or less in the second step, even if the retort treatment is performed, it will hardly affect the quality of the noodles dried by the low-temperature drying treatment. In this way, the number of living bacteria in noodles can be reduced to about 1/100-1/10000 compared with that of uncooked noodles (in the case of carrying out flavoring treatment after gelatinization). When the water content after cooking is more than 12%, there is a problem with the storage stability of instant noodles. After the cooking process, when the water content of the noodles is more than 12%, it is dried in a drying process until the water content becomes 12% or less, preferably 10%. % below (St9). In this drying step, the drying temperature is preferably a condition that satisfies the temperature condition of the second drying step, and may be higher than the temperature condition of the second drying step when the moisture content is 20% or less after the retort treatment. Above 60°C. For example, in the case of drying until the moisture content becomes 12% or less or 10% or less in the second drying step, and performing retort treatment until the moisture content does not exceed 12% in the retort treatment, the drying treatment may not be performed.

However, when noodles are heated with saturated steam during the cooking process, even if the water content is below 12%, the surface of the treated noodles is often wet, so it is better to perform drying treatment to remove the extra water attached to the surface of the noodles . In the case of heating noodles with superheated steam in the cooking process, the moisture content of the noodles can be reduced according to the temperature and the amount of steam. Therefore, the moisture content of the noodles after low-temperature drying is greater than 12% and below 20%. Steam cooking can reduce the moisture content to below 12%, and sometimes the drying process after cooking is unnecessary.

The above-mentioned retort process is not only used as the bacteriostatic treatment in the instant noodle manufacturing method in the present embodiment, but also generally applicable to low-temperature dried instant noodles. For example, it can also be used as antibacterial treatment in the production method of instant noodles that are dried without freezing. The method of drying noodles without freezing, although keeping the temperature close to the state of ice temperature, the method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-137946, etc., which is slowly dried, as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication 2001-252037 No. 35 However, in the case of low-temperature drying without freezing, if the water content is reduced to about 20% by these methods, and then steamed for bacteriostatic treatment, the effect on noodle quality will be small.

The instant noodles of the present embodiment produced as above can be eaten by pouring hot water when eating, leaving it for about 3-5 minutes, or boiling for 1-several minutes, which is a highly convenient instant noodle. The form of the product can be bowl noodles or bag noodles, and it can also be applied to all forms of noodles such as Chinese noodles such as Chinese noodles, cut noodles, Japanese noodles such as buckwheat noodles, and spaghetti.

second embodiment

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of the instant noodle manufacturing method of the second embodiment. The production method of this embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment except that the third drying step ( St7 ) is included after the second drying step ( St6 ). The description of the same steps as those in the first embodiment will be omitted here.

In the third drying step (St7), noodles are dried at temperature T3. Set the T3 temperature above 60°C. In the third drying process, the noodles are subjected to the second drying process, and the water content thereof has become below 20%. If the water content is 20% or less, the temperature is further increased than the second drying step, and drying at 60°C or higher does not have a great influence on the quality. Therefore, when it is desired to further reduce the water content or to further shorten the drying time, it is preferable to carry out the third drying step of drying the noodles at a temperature of 60° C. or higher. However, if the temperature rises above 100°C, problems such as scorching and salt spots will sometimes occur, so the temperature is preferably lower than 100°C. If the drying treatment is further carried out through the third drying step as described above, the moisture content of the noodles is reduced to 12% or less, preferably 10% or less, and sufficient storage performance of the instant noodles can be obtained.

After the third drying process, (St8) of the cooking process of bacteriostatic treatment can be carried out (moisture content when entering St8 reaches less than 20%, and it is not necessary to be dried to less than 12%). In the present embodiment, the water content of the noodles has been reduced to 20% or less, and the method of the cooking step similar to that of the first embodiment can be employed. In the case where the moisture content after cooking is more than 12%, dry treatment (St9) is carried out after cooking to make the moisture content below 12%, preferably below 10%, so that it has storage properties, and further can make the water content at this time The temperature of the drying treatment is 60° C. or higher, and the like is the same as in the case of the first embodiment.

The instant noodles of the present embodiment produced as above, like the first embodiment, can be eaten after being poured into boiling water for about 3-5 minutes, or boiled for 1-several minutes, which is a highly convenient instant noodle. The shape of the product can be bowl noodles or bag noodles, and it can be applied to all types of noodles, such as Chinese noodles such as Chinese noodles, cut noodles, Japanese noodles such as buckwheat noodles, and spaghetti.

Through the manufacturing methods of the first and second embodiments, pure noodles can be produced, which have the characteristics of low-temperature drying instant noodles, are not only instant noodles but also have the cooking feeling when cooking raw noodles, and the noodles have high density, chewiness, and slipperiness. , The taste is also good. Moreover, compared with conventional instant noodles, there is no unnatural waviness, and noodles with much better unraveling characteristics than general non-fried instant noodles, that is, hot air noodles, can be produced. While maintaining the surface quality and advantages of such low-temperature drying instant noodles, it can also greatly shorten the time required for a long drying process for low-temperature drying instant noodles in the past. In addition, the problem that the number of live bacteria in low-temperature dried instant noodles is sometimes very high can also be solved by implementing the St8 cooking process.

Especially in the above embodiment, steaming the noodles after the water content of the noodles drops to below 20% can hardly affect the noodle quality, and even steaming for a short time also has a significant bacteriostasis effect.

As above, the present invention has been described in detail, and as another example of the best mode selected from the above-mentioned respective steps, the following instant noodles manufacturing method can be exemplified. However, the following is only an example after all, and it is needless to say that appropriate changes can be made within the scope not departing from the configuration of the present invention.

(1) When no bacteriostatic treatment is performed and the time required for production is minimized

Making raw noodles → gelatinization → washing, immersing in flavoring liquid (with sterilized water and liquid) → freezing → drying at 30°C or more and below 50°C to a moisture content lower than that before thawing or freezing → at 50°C Above ℃ and below 60℃, dry to a moisture content of 20% or less→dry at a temperature above 60℃, to a moisture content of 12% or less.

(2) When the antibacterial treatment is carried out, and the temperature is not changed in the drying process, it is carried out by one drying device

Making raw noodles→gelatinization→washing, immersing in flavoring liquid→freezing→drying at 30°C or more and below 50°C to thaw, moisture content below 20% (first drying + second drying)→cooking with saturated steam→ Dry at a temperature above 30°C and below 50°C to a moisture content of 12% or less.

(3) In the case of antibacterial treatment, the time required for production is minimized

Making raw noodles → gelatinization → washing and immersing in flavoring liquid → freezing → drying at a temperature above 30°C and below 50°C to a moisture content lower than that before thawing and freezing → drying at a temperature above 50°C and below 60°C to a moisture content Less than 20% → boiled with superheated steam and dried (dried to less than 12% moisture content)

Example

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described based on experimental examples and examples, but it should not be construed that the present invention is limited by the disclosure of these experimental examples and examples.

Experimental example 1 (comparison of drying at a certain temperature)

Add 50 g of starch to 950 g of wheat flour, mix the powder, add 10 g of salt water (sodium carbonate: potassium carbonate = 2: 1), 1 g of sodium polyphosphate, and 350 ml of purified water dissolved with 1 g of gardenia pigment, and mix with Knead for 15 minutes to form a dough. Roll it into 1.1mm with a calender, cut it out with a No. 20 knife to form noodles, cut into 110g portions to get raw noodles. Boil in enough boiling water for 3 minutes to overcooked state, wash and cool the noodles to reduce the temperature of the noodles to about 20°C, and then soak them in the cooled flavoring liquid of 1% salt and 1% water-soluble hemicellulose for about 30 seconds Put the noodles into a dish with a diameter of 145mm and a height of 50mm. The dough in the pan weighed 245-255g and the moisture content was 73%. Put it into the freezer at -35°C for quick freezing, and let it stand for 30 minutes until frozen. Then let the frozen noodles be detached from the tray, put them on the rack of a constant temperature dryer, at a certain temperature of 40°C, 50°C, 60°C, and 100°C, with a wind speed of about 3.5m/s and a humidity of 20g/ ^m2 Dry around.

Measure the surface weight at any time during the drying process, measure the drying time until the instant noodles have finished drying, that is, when the moisture content becomes 10% or less the same as the final product, put the dried noodle blocks into a styrene container, and pour hot water into them. Boil 450ml of water, let it sit for 4 minutes, and test it with a group of 5 people. The results are shown in Table 1.

In the food trial evaluation, those with the texture of low-temperature dried instant noodles, the cooking feeling and chewiness of boiled noodles were regarded as good, and those with the mouthfeel of the film seen in hot-air dried noodles were regarded as bad. From the results in Table 1, it can be known that the drying treatment at a temperature below 50°C, preferably above 40°C, can produce instant noodles with good quality after low-temperature drying treatment. However, it is also understood that drying at 40° C. takes 5 hours, and drying takes a long time.

Table 1 drying temperature drying time final moisture Tasting evaluation 40℃ 300 points 8% ◎ Unraveling characteristics, very good taste 50℃ 180 points 7% ○ Unraveling characteristics, good taste 60℃ 135 points 7% x Unraveling characteristics, poor taste 100°C 90 marks 7% x Unraveling characteristics, poor taste

Experimental example 2 (compared according to the difference in the frozen state before drying)

The raw noodles made in the same way as in Experimental Example 1 were boiled for 3 minutes to make hot noodles with a moisture content of about 73%, and put into a pan of the same size as in Example 1. Freeze the surface completely at -35°C for 30 minutes in the freezer, or semi-frozen at -35°C for 10 minutes, or semi-frozen at -20°C for 30 minutes, or at -2°C for 30 minutes. Minutes without freezing, detached from the plate, placed on the rack of a constant temperature dryer, and dried at 40°C, with a wind speed of about 3.5m/s, and a humidity of about 20g/ ^m3 for 150 minutes. After 150 minutes, the temperature was increased to 50° C., and after another 60 minutes, it was dried to 210 minutes from the beginning of drying.

After drying, measure the weight of the noodles, measure the water content, put the dried noodles into a styrene container, inject 450 ml of hot water, leave it for 4 minutes, and test food by a group of 5 people. The results are shown in Table 2.

In this experimental example, the food trial evaluation is mainly to evaluate the texture and texture of the low-temperature dried noodle samples, and those with good texture and texture are regarded as good, and those without gluten and texture are regarded as bad. As can be seen from the results in Table 2, satisfactory quality cannot be obtained without complete freezing.

Table 2 temperature freezing time frozen state final moisture Tasting evaluation -35°C 10 points half frozen 7.1% △ Muscle, weak texture -35°C 30 points completely frozen 8.2% ◎ good -20°C 30 points half frozen 7.8% x No muscle and texture -2°C 30 points not frozen 7.6% x No muscle and texture

Experimental example 3 (compared according to the difference in moisture content before freezing)

Cook the raw noodles made by the method of Experimental Example 1 in the method of gelatinization (cooking pressure 0.4kg/cm ² , 2 minutes) or change the cooking time so that the moisture content before freezing is 31.5-75.5%. In a tray of the same size as in Experimental Example 1, quickly freeze in a freezer at -35°C, and place for 30 minutes until completely frozen. Then remove the frozen noodles from the tray, place them on the rack of a constant temperature dryer, and dry them at 40°C with a wind speed of about 3.5m/s and a humidity of about 20g/ ^m3 for 150 minutes. After 150 minutes, the temperature was raised to 50° C., and then dried until the moisture content reached a level of 10% or less in the final fraction and there was no problem with storage.

After drying, measure the weight of the noodles, measure the moisture content, put the dried noodles into a container made of styrene, pour 450ml of hot water into it, leave it for 4 minutes, and test it with a group of 5 people. The results are shown in Table 3. The drying time in the table is the time from the start of drying. Since the cooking is dried at 40°C, the moisture content has reached 10%, so the drying at 50°C is not performed.

The food tasting evaluation mainly evaluated the cooking feeling and texture of the freshly cooked noodles of low-temperature dried noodles, and the noodles with a dry texture without cooking were regarded as bad. From the results in Table 3, it can be considered that the moisture content of the noodles before freezing is about 65%, preferably about 70-75%, and the most satisfactory quality can be obtained.

table 3 process moisture before freezing drying time final moisture Tasting evaluation steam for 2 minutes 31.5% 105 points 10.0% x dry taste cook for 1 minute 62.2% 180 points 7.0% x dry taste cook for 3 minutes 69.7% 210 points 8.2% ◎ good cook for 4 minutes 73.0% 255 points 7.8% ◎ good cook for 5 minutes 75.5% 285 points 9.3% ◎ good

Experimental example 4 (comparison of the situation of raising temperature and implementing the second drying process)

The raw noodles made in the same way as in Experimental Example 1 were boiled for 3 minutes to make cooked noodles with a water content of 72.0%, and put into a pan of the same size as Experimental Example 1. Freeze the noodles completely in the freezer at -35°C for 30 minutes, remove them from the tray, place them on the rack of a constant temperature dryer, and use 40°C, wind speed of about 3.5m/s, and humidity of 20g as the first drying process. / ^m3 for drying. Divide the drying time of 60 minutes into 10 minutes each, take out a batch of samples every 10 minutes, measure the weight, and measure the moisture content, and continue in the second drying process at 60°C with a wind speed of about 3.5m/s and a humidity of 20g/ ^m3 Leave to dry for 135 minutes or so.

After drying, measure the weight of the noodles and measure the moisture content. Put the dried noodles into a styrene container, pour 450ml of hot water into it, let it stand for 4 minutes, and test it with a group of 5 people. The results are shown in Table 4.

The taste evaluation has the texture of low-temperature dried instant noodles, and the cooking feeling and texture of freshly boiled noodles are good, and the texture of hot-air-dried noodles is bad. As can be determined from Table 4, there was some rise in moisture at the beginning of the first drying step. It can be considered that the noodles are in a frozen state, because the surrounding temperature is higher than it, and the surrounding moisture enters the noodles. After 20 minutes, the moisture content was almost recovered to the pre-drying moisture content, but the dough pieces were in a state in which complete thawing could not be judged. Afterwards, if it is thawed and dried until the moisture content is lower than that before freezing, the temperature will be increased to 60°C for drying, which will have little effect on the temperature.

Table 4 40℃ first drying time Moisture content after first drying 60℃ second drying time final moisture Tasting evaluation 10 points 72.5% 135 points 9.0% x No cooking feeling, poor untieability 20 points 72.0% 135 points 9.6% x No cooking feeling, poor untieability 30 points 71.0% 135 points 7.2% ○ good 40 marks 69.3% 135 points 7.2% ○ good 50 points 67.9% 135 points 9.6% ○ good 60 points 66.5% 135 points 7.2% ○ good

Experimental example 5 (compared by the temperature of the second drying process)

The drying condition of the first drying process in Experimental Example 4 is set as the noodles at 40°C for 30 minutes, and the noodles are ^dried at 50°C, Dry at 60°C and 70°C until the final moisture content becomes below 10%. After drying, measure the weight of the noodles, measure the water content, put the dried noodles into a styrene container, inject 450ml of hot water, leave it for 4 minutes, and test it with a group of 5 people.

In the food trial evaluation, those with the texture of low-temperature dried instant noodles, the cooking feeling and texture of freshly cooked noodles were regarded as good, and those with the film-like texture seen in hot-air-dried noodles were regarded as bad. The results are shown in Table 5. It can be seen from Table 5 that if the temperature of the second drying process is below 60°C, preferably at a low temperature below 60°C, the quality will be less affected.

table 5 40℃ first drying time second drying temperature second drying time final moisture Tasting evaluation 30 points 50℃ 180 points 9.5% ◎ very good 30 points 60℃ 135 points 7.2% ○ good 30 points 70°C 120 points 9.5% x No texture, poor detachability

Experimental example 6 (comparison in the case of carrying out the third drying process)

Set the drying condition of the first drying process in Experimental Example 4 to 40°C for 30 minutes, then set the conditions of the second drying process to 50°C, wind speed of about 3.5m/s, humidity of about 20g/ ^m3 , and dry for a specified time Until the noodle moisture content changes from about 30% to 10% at the final commercial stage. After the second drying process, the weight is measured and the moisture content is measured. As the third drying process, the noodles whose final moisture content has reached below 10% are removed, and the temperature is increased to 70°C. The wind speed is about 3.5m/s and the humidity is 16g/m. ³ or so, dry until the moisture content becomes 10% of the final commodity stage. After drying, measure the weight of the noodles and measure the water weight, put the dried noodles into a styrene container, pour 450ml of hot water into it, leave it for 4 minutes, and test it with a group of 5 people.

In the food trial evaluation, those with the texture of low-temperature dried instant noodles, the cooking feeling and texture of freshly cooked noodles were considered good, and those with the film-like texture seen in hot-air dried noodles were regarded as bad. The results are shown in Table 6. According to Table 6, it can be seen that when the temperature of the third drying step is increased to 70°C, if the moisture content before entering the third drying step is reduced to about 20% or less, raising the drying temperature to 70°C has little effect on the quality .

Table 6 40℃ first drying time 50℃ second drying time Moisture before third drying 70℃ third drying time final moisture Tasting evaluation 30 points 180 points - none 9.5% ◎ very good 30 points 170 points 10.7% 22.5 points 8.3% ◎ very good 30 points 135 points 16.2% 22.5 points 8.4% ◎ very good 30 points 130 points 20.8% 30.0 points 9.1% ○ good 30 points 125 points 23.9% 37.5 points 8.3% x No cooking feeling, poor detachability 30 points 125 points 29.7% 45.0 points 8.4% x No cooking feeling, poor detachability

Experimental example 7 (compared by the temperature of the third drying process)

The second drying step in Experimental Example 6 was set at 50° C. for 130 minutes, and dried until the moisture content became about 20%. Measure the weight of this semi-dried noodle block, and after confirming the moisture content, carry out the third drying process at 70°C-100°C, wind speed about 3.5m/s, humidity 10-15g/ ^m3 for a specified time, and dry until the final moisture content is 10 %the following. After drying, measure the weight of the noodles, measure the moisture content, put the dried noodles into a container made of styrene, pour 450ml of hot water into it, leave it for 4 minutes, and test it with a group of 5 people.

In the food test evaluation, those with the texture of low-temperature dried instant noodles, the cooking feeling and chewiness of freshly cooked noodles were regarded as good, and those with the filmy texture seen in hot-air-dried noodles were regarded as bad. The results are shown in Table 7. It can be seen from Table 7 that when the third drying process is carried out at 100°C, the noodles are only slightly toasted, but generally there is no problem. If the water content is below 20%, there is almost no problem if the drying temperature is increased. However, when drying at high temperature, it is difficult to control the drying time, so it is desirable to dry below 80°C.

Table 7 40℃ first drying time 50℃ second drying time Moisture before third drying third drying temperature third drying time final moisture Tasting evaluation 30 points 130 points 20.8% 70°C 30 points 9.1% ◎ good 30 points 130 points 18.8% 80°C 15 marks 8.7% ◎ good 30 points 130 points 19.7% 90°C 12 points 8.7% ◎ good 30 points 130 points 21.9% 100°C 12 points 8.7% ○ slightly toasted

Example 1

Add 50 g of tapioca starch to 950 g of wheat flour, mix the powder, and add 10 g of salt water (sodium carbonate: potassium carbonate = 2:1), 5 g of protein powder, 1 g of sodium, and 1.5 g of gardenia pigment. Purify water 350ml, knead for 15 minutes at vacuum degree-600mmHg with vacuum mixer, form dough. Roll it into 1.1mm with a calender, cut it out with a No. 20 knife, become noodles, cut into 110g per portion, and get raw noodles. Boil in sufficient boiling water for 3 minutes to the overcooked state, wash and cool with tap water at 20°C for 30 seconds, and soak in 20°C water containing 1% salt, 1% water-soluble hemicellulose, and 0.5% sodium glutamate. For about 30 seconds, put a portion into a plate with a diameter of 145mm and a height of 50mm. Put it into the freezer at -35°C for quick freezing, and let it stand for 30 minutes until it is completely frozen. Then remove the frozen noodles from the tray, place them on the rack of a constant temperature dryer, and dry them. The first drying process is 45°C for 60 minutes, the second drying process is 50°C for 150 minutes, and the third drying process is 70°C. 15 minutes, the wind speed is about 3.5m/s, and the humidity is about 20g/ ^m3 .

After drying, the moisture content was measured to be 8.0%. The noodle block was put into a styrene container, poured into 450 ml of hot water, left for 4 minutes, and added to the Chinese noodle soup for testing. There are no knots between the noodles, and the untangleability is good. It has the cooking feeling and strong texture of boiled noodles. The texture is excellent, and it is not easy to stretch when exposed to boiling water.

Example 2

Manufacture in the same manner as in Example 1, and the frozen face is separated from the dish on the grid rack of the post-installed constant temperature dryer. This time, the first drying process is 50°C for 15 minutes, the second drying process is 60°C for 120 minutes, and the third drying The process is 15 minutes at 70°C, drying with a wind speed of about 3.5m/s and a humidity of about 20g/ ^m3 . The time required for drying was 150 minutes in total.

Measure the water content after drying, it is 8.5%, put this noodle block into a container made of styrene, inject 450ml of hot water, leave it for 4 minutes, add the soup for Chinese noodle and eat it. There are no knots between the noodles, and the untangleability is good. It has the cooking feeling and chewiness of boiled noodles. It has a strong texture and is not easy to stretch when exposed to boiling water. It is a noodle without curl.

Experimental example 8 (the change of bacteria count by low temperature drying method)

First, the changes in the number of live bacteria in noodles during the drying process of the low-temperature drying method were investigated by the following method.

Mix 50 g of starch with 950 g of wheat flour, add 10 g of salt water (sodium carbonate + potassium carbonate = 2:1), 1 g of sodium polyphosphate, and 350 ml of purified water dissolved in 1 g of gardenia pigment, and knead with a mixer for 15 minutes , made into dough. Roll it with a calender into a thick 1.1mm strip, cut it out with a No. 20 knife to form noodles, and cut into 110g per portion. Boil it with enough boiling water for 3 minutes to the overcooked state, wash it with tap water at about 20°C and cool it down, let the temperature of the noodles drop and dry it, then soak it in the following flavoring liquid for 30 seconds, and dry it. Put into a cylindrical pan with a diameter of 145mm and a height of 50mm. Now the noodle weight is 250g, and the noodle moisture content is 72%. Put it into a -35°C freezer for quick freezing, and freeze it completely in 30 minutes to become a sample before drying.

Dry the above-mentioned completely frozen noodle samples at low temperature. The temperature in the drying room is 40°C, the humidity is about 20g/m ³ , and the wind speed is 3m/s for 2.5 hours, and then the temperature in the drying room is 50°C and the humidity is about 20g/m ³ , Wind speed 3m/s, carry out 1 hour, until the moisture content of noodles is about 10%. Then increase the temperature to 70°C, humidity about 20g/m ³ , wind speed 3m/s, and further dry for 30 minutes, as the final drying, to a final moisture content of about 8%. The weight at the time of measurement was compared with the dry weight of all raw materials to calculate the water content of the noodles.

The flavoring liquid is a solution containing 1% of salt, 0.3% of sodium glutamate, and 1% of water-soluble hemicellulose (unraveling improver). Replenish at any time the part that is absorbed by the noodles) the solution that enters flavor liquid and place 20 hours at room temperature again. The temperature of the flavoring liquid is about 20°C. Measure the number of bacteria in the flavoring liquid, and the number of viable bacteria in each noodle of the frozen noodle block before drying, after drying at 40°C, after drying at 50°C, and after drying at 70°C.

The inspection method of the number of live bacteria (general number of live bacteria) adopts the following method. That is, aseptically weigh 10g (10ml) of the sample in a sterilized petri dish, add 90ml of sterilized physiological saline, use a bacteria separator to fully disperse and suspend the sample in the liquid, and then dilute it step by step to an appropriate multiple. For 1ml of the diluted solution, add 20ml of standard agar medium to the petri dish and mix them. After culturing at 35°C for 48 hours, count the number of colonies appearing on the plate, calculate the average value of 2 plates, and multiply the dilution factor , Calculate the number of viable bacteria per 1g (1ml) of the sample. For other embodiments later on, the assay method of viable count is also the same.

As a result, the general number of viable bacteria in the flavoring liquid was 3.4×10 ⁴ /ml,

The general viable count of frozen noodles before drying is 3.2×10 ⁴ /g,

After drying at 40℃, it is 5.9×10 ⁴ /g (moisture content 24%),

After drying at 50℃, it is 1.5×10 ⁴ /g (moisture content 9%),

After drying at 70°C, it was 1.7×10 ⁴ /g (moisture content 8%).

From these results, it can be understood that the number of live bacteria in the noodles in the drying process can hardly be reduced by the low-temperature drying method, and even if a certain high temperature is used for the final drying, the antibacterial effect cannot be expected.

Example 3

The same as the flavoring liquid used in Experimental Example 8, the flavoring liquid prepared on another day was diluted to 10 times, and it was used in the same way as in Experimental Example 8 to make a sample in a frozen state before drying. The number of viable bacteria in the flavoring liquid is 3.0×10 ³ /ml. The drying process is also the same as in Experimental Example 8, but at the end of the 50°C low-temperature drying (moisture content is about 9%), under the conditions of the following Table 8, use saturated steam or superheated steam to cook, and after cooking, dry at a drying temperature of 70°C and humidity About 20g/m ³ , wind speed 3m/s, and then dry for 30 minutes.

While measuring the number of bacteria in the dried noodles, pour 450ml of hot water into it, let it rest for 4 minutes to recover, and test food by a group of 5 people for sensory evaluation. As a comparative example, noodles dried at 70° C. for 30 minutes after low-temperature drying at 50° C. without retorting after low-temperature drying were compared as a control. Cooking conditions, in the case of saturated steam (atmospheric pressure), the steam flow rate is 200 or 400kg/m ³ /h, in the case of superheated steam, the steam flow rate is 700kg/m ³ /h, and the actual temperature in the center of the steam chamber is 146°C. . The moisture content of the final noodles is about 8%-10%.

The results are shown in Table 8. The number of viable bacteria in the noodles subjected to cooking treatment was inhibited (the data before and after steaming with saturated steam of 400kg/m ³ /h×30 seconds may be considered to be caused by contamination during the viable bacteria test). In addition, when the texture of the noodles is 400kg/m ³ /h×60 seconds in saturated steam, it feels like a film similar to that of hot air-dried instant noodles, but it still maintains the smooth and textured texture of low-temperature dried instant noodles. Taste.

Table 8 cooking conditions General viable count Sensory evaluation Control (no cooking) 1.2×10 ³ It has the texture of low temperature dry surface, good Saturated steam 400kg/m ³ /h×60 seconds <5 Some taste of hot air dry noodles, but good Saturated steam 400kg/m ³ /h×30 seconds 32 no difference from control Saturated steam 400kg/m ³ /h×15 seconds <5 no difference from control Saturated steam 200kg/m ³ /h×30 seconds <5 no difference from control Saturated steam 200kg/m ³ /h×15 seconds <5 no difference from control Superheated steam 700kg/m ³ /h×60 seconds <5 no difference from control Superheated steam 700kg/m ³ /h×30 seconds <5 no difference from control Superheated steam 700kg/m ³ /h×15 seconds <5 no difference from control

In the above example, noodles cooked with saturated steam of 200 kg/m ³ /h (normal pressure) for 30 seconds and noodles cooked with superheated steam of 700 kg/m ³ /h for 2 seconds (moisture content after drying at 50°C: 9%) , placed indoors for production without re-drying after cooking. After standing, measure the weight and measure the moisture content. If it is cooked with saturated steam, it will be 10%, and if it is cooked with superheated steam, it will be 9%. The same as the aforementioned re-drying process, all poured into hot water, left to eat in 4 minutes, and had low-temperature drying instant noodle samples, slippery, textured noodles.

Example 4

Similar to Experimental Example 8, it was used for the flavoring liquid prepared on another day, and a sample in a frozen state before drying was prepared in the same manner as Experimental Example 8. The bacterial count of the flavoring liquid is 1.0×10 ⁵ /ml. The frozen sample was dried at 40°C, humidity about 20g/m ³ , wind speed 3m/s for 2.5 hours (moisture content 24%), and then dried at 50°C, humidity about 20g/m ³ , wind speed 3m/s for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 35 minutes, 40 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes the same as Experimental Example 8.

Measure the weight of the block after low-temperature drying, calculate the moisture content, and cook immediately. The cooking condition is 200 kg/m ³ /h of saturated steam (atmospheric pressure) for 30 seconds. After re-drying, until the moisture content is considered to be below 10%, the drying temperature is increased to 70°C for drying, the weight is measured, and the moisture content of the obtained product is calculated. The number of living bacteria of the dried noodles was measured, and a group of 5 people tasted them in the same manner as in Example 3, and performed sensory evaluation. The above-mentioned comparative example which was dried at a low temperature of 50°C for 60 minutes without retort treatment was used as a control for comparison.

The results are shown in Table 9. Noodles that were dried at low temperature until the moisture content was below 20% could have a smooth, textured mouthfeel like that of low-temperature dried noodles, while those dried at low temperature had a moisture content of only about 25%. In the case of left or right, the mouthfeel like low-temperature drying instant noodles cannot be obtained. In addition, when retorting, if the moisture content is reduced by low-temperature drying in advance, the bactericidal effect is high, especially after the final low-temperature drying drying treatment to reduce the moisture content to about 15% or less, the bactericidal effect is the highest.

Table 9 50℃ drying time Moisture before cooking final moisture General viable count Sensory evaluation 60 points no cooking 8.4% 1.8×10 ⁵ 15 marks 30.0% 8.9% 8.6×10 ² There is a feeling of crushing pimples 20 points 24.4% 9.5% 1.6×10 ² There is a feeling of crushing pimples 30 points 20.4% 8.4% 2.8×10 ² good 35 points 18.7% 8.4% 2.4×10 ² very good 40 marks 17.8% 7.8% 7.2×10 ² very good 45 points 16.0% 8.4% 3.0×10 ¹ very good 60 points 7.8% 7.8% 2.0×10 ¹ very good

From the above description, those in the industry can understand that the present invention can be modified in many ways and has other implementations. Therefore, the above description should be interpreted as an illustration only, and the purpose is to provide guidance for those skilled in the art to provide the best mode for carrying out the present invention. Actual changes may be made in the details of its methods without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Possibility of industrial use

The method for producing instant noodles of the present invention can be used for producing instant noodles such as Chinese noodles such as Chinese noodles, cut noodles, Japanese noodles such as buckwheat noodles, and spaghetti. Moreover, the instant noodles of the present invention can be provided in the form of bowl noodles, bag noodles, and the like.

Claims (16)

1. A method for producing instant noodles, which is a method for producing instant noodles, characterized in that it comprises the following four steps: (a) a step of preparing gelatinized noodles with a moisture content of 65% or more, (b) freezing the noodles (c) placing the above-mentioned noodles at a temperature of 30°C or higher and lower than 50°C to obtain thawed noodles with a water content lower than the above-mentioned water content before freezing, and (d) making the above-mentioned noodles The process of making noodles with a moisture content of 20% or less at a temperature above 30°C and below 60°C. 2. The method for producing instant noodles according to claim 1, wherein the temperature of the step (d) is higher than the temperature of the step (c). 3. The method for producing instant noodles according to claim 2, wherein the temperature in the step (d) is 50°C or higher and lower than 60°C. 4. The method for producing instant noodles according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein said step (a) includes a step of boiling said noodles. 5. The method for producing instant noodles according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein in the step (d), the water content of the noodles is reduced to 10% or less. 6. according to the manufacture method of any one of claim 1-4, it is characterized in that, also have (e) after above-mentioned operation (d) be placed under the temperature above 60 ℃, make Process for noodles with a moisture content of 10% or less. 7. The method for producing instant noodles according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein the step (d) is followed by (f) a step of heating the noodles with steam. 8. The method for producing instant noodles according to claim 7, wherein the heating with steam in the step (f) is a step of heating the noodles with steam for a time longer than 10 seconds and less than 3 minutes. 9. The method for producing instant noodles according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that there is (g) a step of further drying the noodles at a temperature of 60° C. or higher between the steps (d) and (f). 10. The manufacturing method of instant noodles according to any one of claims 7-9, characterized in that, between the steps (a) and (b), there is (h) contacting the noodles with a solution below 60°C process. 11. The method for producing instant noodles according to claim 10, wherein the contact with the solution in the step (h) is for washing the noodles and/or flavoring the noodles. 12. according to the manufacture method of any one of claim 7-11 described instant noodles, it is characterized in that, also have (i) with above-mentioned noodle dry processing after above-mentioned operation (f), make the moisture content of noodle become 12. % of the following processes. 13. The method for producing instant noodles according to claim 12, wherein the drying treatment in the step (i) is to dry the noodles at a temperature of 60° C. or higher. 14. according to the manufacture method of any one of claim 7-11, it is characterized in that, the heating with steam of above-mentioned operation (f) is heating with superheated steam, makes the moisture content of the noodles after heating become 12% or less. 15. according to the manufacture method of any one of claim 7-11, it is characterized in that, when entering above-mentioned process (f), make the moisture content of above-mentioned noodle below 12%, in above-mentioned process (f) Keep the moisture content of the above noodles below 12% for heating. 16. Instant noodles, characterized in that they are produced by the method for producing instant noodles according to any one of claims 1-15.

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