Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Abstract

Reducing the Oil Content of Fried Noodles through Forming a Rough and Coarse Gluten Network

Mitsuru Tanaka, Eriko Kanai, Sho Kitano, Hideki Takizawa, Tomiko Asakura, Soichi Tanabe and Yoshio Nobuyasu

Instant noodles have been spreading worldwide. The frying process not only enables high productivity but also provides easy-to-eat property and favorable roast and savory flavor. Although a reduction in the amount of oil in fried noodles is required occasionally, the relationship between oil content and the gluten network in fried noodles has been little studied. The present study aimed to clarify how differences in the density of the gluten network structure can affect the oil content of the fried noodle. In conventional methods for producing fried noodles, the noodle sheet is made from dough using a rolling-press followed by repeated compressions to gradually reduce the thickness to obtain the final rolled noodle sheet. Using electron microscopy, a dense and well-dispersed gluten network was observed in the conventional fried noodle. In contrast, a coarse and roughly-dispersed gluten network structure was observed in noodle sheets formed by extrusion followed by an immediate rapid compression using a rolling-press. This process reduced the oil content of the fried noodles by approximately two-thirds compared with that of the conventionally processed fried noodles with dense gluten. Therefore, this improved process of noodle sheet formation and rolling-press can suppress the formation of the gluten network and so substantially reduce the oil content of these fried noodles made from coarse gluten.