INCLUSION OF OAT FLOUR IN THE FORMULATION OF REGULAR SALTED DRIED NOODLES AND ITS EFFECTS ON DOUGH AND NOODLE PROPERTIES

摘要

In many Asian countries, noodles have been used as a staple food for many years. The main iugerdients of noodles are wheat flour, water and salt. Today, most of the noodles are produced by machine, while hand-made noodles are still available and common in many parts of the world. In both methods (i.e. using hand or machine) the process usually involves mixing of the ingredients to make a uniform dough, sheeting and cutting the dough to different lengths. Depending on the type of noodles, dough strands can be consumed fresh or they may be dried, steamed, boiled, frozen, steamed and deep fried and steamed and hot air dried. Accordingly, the type of noodle processing before consumption has been used as a method for classification of the noodles. The formulation and appearance of the noodles varies in different parts of the world due to regional eating habits, taste preference and advances in technology which has made it difficult to classify noodles. Based on the salt content, noodles are classified as regular salted and alkaline noodles. In Iran, noodles are gerenally produced from white wheat flour, 2-8% salt and water and can be classified as dried regular salted noodles with flat a surface. These type of noodles are also very common in Japan, China and Korea. Normally, flours of low extraction rate are used in noodle production since the appearance of dark bran specks in the noodles is undesirable. Such flours contain very low dietary fiber and hence noodles are considered as low fiber foods. Therefore, increasing the fiber content of the noodles can improve their nutrition value and have positive effects on human health.