The process flow of the instant noodle machinery and equipment production line is mainly composed of the main processes of flour supply, noodles, calendering, cooking, frying, and cooling. Among them, the effect of the steaming process is good or bad, which affects various factors such as the quality and fuel consumption of the entire production and final product.
The purpose of the steaming process is to use saturated steam to steam the noodles. It is to maximize the gelatinization of the starch in the noodles, making it a product with good edible quality.
Starch is the main component of flour, accounting for about 70% of flour. Starch and water mixed heating, when heated to a certain temperature, starch particles will suddenly expand to the original volume of tens or even hundreds of times, so that the starch particles rupture, in the hot water to form a paste. This is the gelatinizing effect of starch. Starch is insoluble in water at room temperature, and only when the temperature reaches above the gelatinization temperature, the starch particles rapidly expand to absorb water, and then bond into a viscous, transparent paste. After starch gelatinization, the microcrystalline beam is separated to form a three-dimensional net with large gaps and irregularities, and it also has moderate viscoelasticity, the degree of gelatinization is high, and the better the viscoelasticity. The minimum gelatinization temperature of wheat starch is 59.5~60℃
The advantages and disadvantages of the cooking process of instant noodles comprehensively reflect the degree of starch gelatinization, and the degree of gelatinization of starch depends on three conditions: moisture, temperature and time.
In today's instant noodle production line, the equipment that undertakes the cooking of noodles is a tunnel-type atmospheric steam tank with a certain length. When working, the corrugated raw surface belt is placed on the metal mesh belt with good air permeability, slowly advancing through steaming, the steam pipe installed in the lower part of the metal mesh belt will be directly sprayed at the bottom of the steam tank, through the corrugated surface belt, or from the gap between the surface belt and the metal mesh belt into the upper space of the steam tank, the entire steam tank is filled with saturated steam, so that the temperature in the tank reaches 100 ° C, using the characteristics of steam rise, the inlet end of the steam tank is slightly lower than the outlet end. The surface tape entering the steam tank is quickly exchanged with the steam to absorb heat. Reduce the temperature at the inlet end of the tank.
