High and ultra‐high temperature drying of fermented dried noodles: effect on noodle quality and starch properties

Summary Although dried noodles have been industrialised for many years, some technical bottlenecks, such as dense cross‐section structure, poor rehydration ability and the lack of nutritional and flavour substances, still need to be addressed. Fermentation has been used to produce dried noodles to impart a porous structure and microbial metabolites, improving their rehydration properties and the nutritional and flavour quality of dried noodles. However, the current commercially fermented dried noodles exhibit some issues, such as high breakage rate, rough surface and sticky texture that need to be solved. Drying at high (HT) and ultra‐high temperatures (UT) has been shown to improve the quality of dried pasta or noodles. However, HT and UT drying are not currently used to produce fermented dried noodles. This article investigates the changes in the quality and starch physicochemical properties of fermented dried noodles with high (HM), medium (MM) or low moisture (LM) content dried at HT or UT. The results showed that the UT‐LM condition most prominently improved the noodle quality, significantly reduced the cooking loss rate (5.19%) and significantly increased the water absorption rate (191.41%) of the noodles, and improved the rehydration of noodles. In addition, the cross‐linking of the gluten network was analysed using confocal laser scanning microscopy and the AngioTool software. It was found that the UT treatment promoted the cross‐linking of the gluten network, and the highest number of cross‐linking points (976) was achieved under the UT‐LM condition. The tight gluten network reduces the amylose leaching from the noodles, giving the noodles a denser surface structure and lower adhesiveness. In conclusion, UT‐LM drying could be used as an effective drying condition to improve the quality of fermented dried noodles.