Drying Pasta and Noodles
by
Alex McNabb
CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences, Canberra

Many food doughs such as noodles, spaghetti and other pasta products are moulded or extruded in a wet state and then dried before further processing such as packaging and /or cooking. The drying of these doughs from a soft weak state to a strong and firm texture needs to be carefully controlled. Not too fast to avoid cracking and surface damage during the transition stages and not too slow that it becomes contaminated with fungal growth. This talk presents a summary of progress towards a model of the drying process, which incorporates stress strain aspects associated with driving the moisture to the surface of the material during the initial stage of the long drying process. This is followed by a two phase stage involving a moving vapour front and a final rate controlling step involving vapour diffusion in a nanoporous material.

Date received: October 6, 2000