Pasta and Noodles

Introduction

Noodles are favorite dishes with most people. They form a part of the food traditions of most western societies. Noodles are favorite foods because they relatively small about of time to prepare as they are precooked the production.  They are made from wheat and floor mixed with water but delivered for preservation purposes (Nestle, 2010). Noodles are also added special salt that gives them their flavor and color.  Within 2 minutes only, you will have the most delicious meal of noodles because they are taken through manufacturing process that ensue their safety and easiness to cook.

Production process

The process of manufacturing noodles starts all the way from the garden until when they are packaged and into sachets.  This means that process starts right away from the garden   from where the best wheat is ordered for the manufacturing process.  Throughout the production process, safety of the products is guaranteed as there are controls ate different points of production that are meant to ensure safety of the product (Noah, 2000). The production process is meant to make the product safe for consumers.  The following are the main steps in manufacturing of Maggi noodles:

Flour is delivered to nestle

This is the first step involved in manufacturing of noodles. Since the company is committed to ensure that customers get only the best noodles, the quality of raw materials is not compromised. The company orders wheat which has been produced under the best hygiene conditions. Once wheat has been delivered to the company warehouse, the production process begins with cleaning of the floor to remove all the impurities. Only high quality and pure wheat that passes the quality mark is used in production of noodles.

Milling

The next step involves milling of flour. Once it has been cleaned and all impurities removed, it then milled into fine flour that is forms the main ingredient in manufacturing of noodles (Levenstein, 2003).  Wheat is milled into semolina and in some cases, this may be done outside the factor and hence it is taken to the noodle factor for further preparation.

Mixing with liquid

Once the floor has been prepared, it is mixed with water to make dough.  It is at this process that other important ingredients like salt and colorings are also added.  The floor is mixed with alkaline salt at this stage to ensure that there is complete homogenization of the mixture (Ramli, 2010).  Once the liquid has been added, it is ready made into dough.

Dough extruding and cutting

Once the dough has been made, it is extruded cut.  This involves rolling the dough into desired size and cut into noodle sizes.  Dough rolling is mainly done using the machine into desire sizes. The dough is mainly rolled flat and then cut into distinct noodle strands.

Precooking and folding

After the dough has been cut into the desire sizes, it is then pre-cooked and folded. Precooking ensures that   the noodles take a little time to be cooked.  Pre-cooking is also used as a precautionary measure to kill micro-organisms which may thrive once the dough has been folded.  Pre-cooking also makes it easier to fold the noodles into the desire sizes since it improves the folding property of wheat.

Cooking

After precooking, noodles are again cooked through high temperate. Cooking by steaming is meant to ensure that it improves the palatability of noodles. It also ensures that all microorganisms are killed. Microorganism can have devastating effects on the noodles if they are not killed at this stage of processing. Cooking noodle convenience foods since they will only required to be heated for two minutes before they are used. After cooking, they are then dried to remove all the moisture and improve their shelf life since they would be infested with microorganisms if packaged wet (Guttmaan, 2005).

Cooling

After cooking in high temperature, they are then cooled. Cooling noodles helps in improving their packaging property. This also improves the handling property and improves their compatibility such that it becomes easier to hold them in their packages.

Packaging

The last step in the manufacture of noodles is packaging and adding flavor sachets. This is the final and important process as it influences marketing and improves the shelf life of noodles. Packaging takes place in a vacuum to ensure that there is not contact with microorganisms which may lead to spoilage when they are packed.  The packet is also used as a marketing tool. It contains important label which instructs the consumer on how to prepare the product. After packaging, noodles are ready to be taken to the shelves from where we can pick them.

Therefore, from the production process it is evident that the only reason why it takes only two minutes to prepare the noodle is because it has bee pre-cooked.   The whole process from the time when high protein wheat is harvested into the garden to the time it is taken into Nestle factory has the quality of the product in mind. Maggi Noodles are produced for your convenience ensuring that you have the product on time and when you need it.

List of References

Noah, B. (2000). Food safety, preparation and storage. University of Arizona

Levenstein, H. (2003). Paradox of plenty. University of California press

Guttmaan, E. (2005). Food processing. University of Reading

Nestle (2010). Noodles. [online] available from <http://www.nestle.in/PreparedDishes_CookingAids.aspx?OB=3&id=55> [May 6, 2010]

Ramli, J. (2010). Nestle cuts salt content in its instant noodles. [online] available from <http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/jrgaint/Article/> [May 6, 2010]