EP2791603B1

EP2791603B1 - A manufacturing method for the production of stuffed pasta

Info

Publication number: EP2791603B1
Application number: EP13802464.1A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Mine OZCELIK; Mustafa Feridun HABOGLU
Original assignee: Nuh'un Ankara Makarnasi San ve Tic AS
Current assignee: Nuh'un Ankara Makarnasi San ve Tic AS
Priority date: 2012-08-08
Filing date: 2013-08-06
Publication date: 2018-12-19
Anticipated expiration: 2033-08-06
Also published as: EP2791603A2; WO2014025328A2; JP2015525571A; WO2014025328A3

Description

The present invention relates to a manufacturing method that can be used for the production of pasta stuffed with vegetables, cheese, meat, etc. and dried with microwave vacuum drying technology.
In the current state of the art, the methods used for production of pasta stuffed with vegetables, cheese, etc. comprise the following basic steps;

1) Preparation and storage of raw materials to be used in the production;
The products to be used in the production of stuffed pasta such as meat, cheese, bakery products, flour, shelled eggs and pasteurized eggs, vegetable oils, mushrooms, vegetables, spices and the like are prepared and stored at this stage.
2) Preparation of stuffing;
The filling ingredients to be placed in the stuffed pasta are prepared in the desired amounts, ground in the grinding machines and then, the ground ingredients are mixed by kneading in the kneading machines. The prepared mixture is stored between 0°C and 8°C.
3) Preparation of pasta dough;
The ingredients such as flour, eggs and water to be processed into the pasta dough are added to a kneading machine and pasta dough is constituted in said machine. The prepared pasta dough is passed through a rolling press and made into a thin layer.
4) Preparation of pasta;
The dough block prepared in layers is conveyed to the stuffed pasta preparation machine. In the stuffed pasta preparation machine, desired amount of filling ingredients are stuffed into the pasta. After the stuffing process, the stuffed pasta is pasteurized with steam at high temperatures. The intermediate products obtained after the pasteurization process are dried in a drying machine ventilated with hot dry air.

After the completion of the drying process, appropriate quantities of intermediate products are packaged using plastic films. In order to arrange the interior space of the packages during packaging, the air inside said packages is discharged and CO₂ and N are added.
In the stuffed pasta manufacturing method described above and used in the current state of the art, drying process is carried out in conventional dryers with hot dry air. During drying, cracks and deformations on the outer surface of the product resulting from the treatment of said product with hot and dry air may occur. Thus, this leads to reduction in the economic value of the manufactured product, deterioration of the stuffing material and loss of the nutritional value, flavor and aroma of the stuffing material.
In said manufacturing method, the moisture content of the product cannot be evenly removed by the drying process carried out in the conventional dryers. During drying of the product with hot air in the conventional dryers, the moisture accumulated in the outer surface of the product quickly leaves the structure since it is in contact with hot air at high temperatures, rapidly drying the outer surface of said product. However, as the hot dry air cannot penetrate the interior parts of the product, the moisture trapped inside cannot be withdrawn with the same rate. The moisture trapped inside the moist inner parts of the product due to the drying of the outer structure of said product can move to the surface thereof over time due to the difference in concentration. However, due to the factors such as long drying process durations and use of dry air at high temperatures for the need of rapid drying, the moisture trapped inside the product cannot reach the outer surface thereof. Thus, either the product cannot be sufficiently dried, or internal structure thereof remains moist while the outer structure thereof is dried, or enough moisture can be withdrawn from the inner surface thereof, but, the outer surface thereof cracks and deforms due to excessive drying.
The high water activity of the products manufactured with insufficient drying, i.e. without removing the moisture trapped in the inner parts thereof, increases the possibility of the product to undergo bacteriological deterioration during storage and shelf placement thereof.
In the event that the product is excessively dried in order to prevent said microorganism based deterioration, the structure of the product can be deformed and economic value of the product can diminish.
Likewise, excessive drying is carried out in order to reach the desired level of drying, leading to loss of color of the product. The attractiveness of the product decreases, and the economic value of the product diminishes resulting from the color problems of the product.
In the existing systems, reaching high temperatures is needed for drying the product, thus, said product dried at high temperatures and having increased temperature should be cooled prior to packaging. Application of an additional drying process during production increases the costs of production as well as the investment costs since an extra drying unit should be added to the system for realization of the drying process.
US5,101,717, filed on 22.06.1999 , discloses a method for production of stuffed pasta. The pasta is stuffed and prepared according to the respective manufacturing method, wherein prepared stuffed pasta samples are dried in the conventional air-based drying units. For drying according to the respective manufacturing method, air at 60-80°C having a relative humidity value of 60% is used and the process lasts for approximately 240 minutes. As a result of the respective process, the relative humidity value contained within the pasta can be reduced to 8-12%. The duration of the drying processes according to the respective manufacturing method is increased to 240 minutes and the production time for unit pasta is raised. Extending the drying process to long periods increases the energy costs as well as raises the total production costs since it increases the amount of product produced by the entity per unit time. In the respective manufacturing method, temperature of the employed air is decreased, thus, the amount of deterioration experienced in the product is diminished. However, although said deterioration is reduced for the respective production system due to the initiation of the drying of the pasta from outer parts thereof in the drying systems using dry air, product losses resulting from deformations are experienced.
US 6,203,830, filed on 14.11.1989 , discloses a process for the production of long pasta and an apparatus used in the application of said process. In the respective manufacturing method, drying process is carried out in 2 stages. In the first stage, pasta is treated with hot air at 80°C and having a relative humidity of 60-80% for approximately 10 minutes and relative humidity of the product is reduced to approximately 18%. In the second stage, the intermediate pasta product is treated with hot air having a temperature of more than 80°C and a relative humidity of 65-85% and relative humidity of the intermediate product is reduced to around 14%. Thus, increase of the production costs and product unit costs is prevented due to prolonging of the production process resulting from rapid drying of the product. However, the aforementioned production system is not suitable for drying of stuffed pasta. Since the stuffed pasta does not only contain dough in the structure thereof, and is provided with stuffing ingredients having more moisture content than the dough, only the outer structure of the pasta can be dried by means of the aforementioned drying process and the stuffing ingredients placed into the internal structure of the pasta cannot be dried. The filling ingredient remaining moist causes the product to be easily and more vulnerable to microbial deterioration during storage thereof or during the shelf life thereof. Likewise, the outer surface of the stuffed pasta samples dried with the aforementioned manufacturing method dries very rapidly and cracks and deformations on the outer pasta surface can occur.
In the manufacturing techniques of the prior art described above and based on the principle of drying pasta using dry air, the conditions in the drying chamber should be continuously regulated and kept constant at certain values in order to provide appropriate drying environment. However, since there are many factors affecting the drying function in the systems mentioned above, the numerous variables inside the drying chamber should be continuously kept under control. For instance, in the systems performing the drying using air, when the moisture content of the air is below the desired value, excessive drying and burning can occur in the product, and when said moisture content is above the desired value, product losses can occur due to incomplete drying. Thus, the air entering the drying unit should be constantly kept at the desired level by means of moisture adjusting apparatus. Similarly, duration and temperature values inside the drying unit should be kept between certain values in order to obtain fixed quality product output. The necessity to keep numerous variables described above under constant control increases both the investment and production costs.
In the existing systems, the production process takes longer since it is carried out for extended periods with air at lower temperatures and having relatively high moisture content. Today, long drying duration of the stuffed pasta manufactured in the continuous production processes generally prevents the complete continuous manufacturing. In addition, longer drying process causes the entire production flow being arranged according to the drying step, which is the slowest one.
US 2002/0098266 A1 discloses a stuffed pasta manufacturing method. Dough is prepared and coextruded with stuffing and cut to size. After steam pasteurizing the pasta is dried employing micro wave and packaged.
Since the drying process of the manufacturing method that can be used for the production of stuffed pasta according to the present invention is carried out by microwave vacuum drying a higher quality product can be obtained. Since the drying process is carried out by vacuum drying and the stuffing part provided inside the pasta, having relatively higher moisture content than the outer part dries at a rate close to said outer part, a homogeneously dried product can be obtained. The water activity of the pasta stuffing material diminishes since said stuffing material provided inside the pasta can be dried to low moisture levels after the drying process, thus, the microbial activity in the pasta stuffing part is reduced and storage and shelf life of the stuffed pasta product can be increased.
In the present invention, long drying process durations using high temperatures are not required since the stuffing material provided inside the stuffed pasta can be efficiently dried. Thus, the production process is accelerated as well as the production costs required for unit product is reduced. In this way, obtaining product with lower costs is provided.
Since the product can be dried more homogeneously and uniformly by using the present invention, the relatively moist stuffing material disposed inside the pasta is also dried rapidly and the deteriorations and losses of the product resulting from excessive drying can be eliminated.
The manufacturing method according to the present invention allows rapid and continuous manufacturing, thus, pasta production processes are reduced.
In the present invention, since the drying process is carried out by microwave vacuum drying, the problem of simultaneous and constant control of numerous variables experienced during drying with dry air is eliminated and consequently, production and investment costs are reduced.
The manufacturing method that can be used for the production of stuffed pasta according to the present invention comprises the process steps described below:

First, in the raw material dosing stage, the ingredients and eggs required for the production of pasta are added to the water, the obtained mixture is combined with appropriate amount of semolina and after obtaining the final mixture, if required, eggs and other ingredients can be added into said final mixture,
The obtained mixture is mixed and kneaded during the mixing-kneading stage and made into a dough,
In the extrusion stage carried out using mechanical processes without any heat treatment, dough is laminated and rolled into a thin sheet so as to be shaped with the stuffing material,
Appropriate stuffing material to be added to the stuffed pasta is prepared simultaneously with the extrusion,
In the shaping stage, appropriate amount of stuffing material is simultaneously added to the pasta cut in desired shape and size and shaping is completed,
The shaped stuffed pasta intermediate product is pasteurized by being exposed to steam for a certain period of time,
After pasteurization with steam, the intermediate product is dried in a vacuum environment by the effect of the microwave and at the same time a secondary pasteurization is obtained in the microwave process,
After drying, the product can be packaged according to the specified weights without performing cooling thanks to temperature of the product resulting from the microwave vacuum drying system,
After the initial packaging, the product is packaged again by using PE (Polyethylene), aluminum or gelatin foil packaging coil.

During the drying process described above, barriers having appropriate sizes for the predetermined product structures are placed into the products. The drying process is carried out using an open ended rotary drum made of Polypropylene (PP) material.
In the vacuum microwave drying process described above, the temperature in the vacuum chamber is kept below 50°C, the temperature of the product is kept below 40°C, the drying duration is kept below 90 minutes and the output moisture content of the product is kept below 10%. Thus, the drying process can be completed without disrupting the product form and properties.
In the present invention, the water contained in the food is evaporated at lower temperatures and easier than the atmospheric conditions and a faster drying process using less energy can be performed thanks to the realization of the drying process in a vacuum environment. More importantly, oxidation reactions are reduced since very little air is present in the environment during the removal of water. Since oxidative deterioration is prevented in the vacuum dryers, the color, texture and flavor of the dried product can be maintained as well as the nutritional value thereof is not lost.
The basic principle of microwave heating is that the polar molecules in the material are influenced and transformation of the electromagnetic energy into thermal energy is provided. Thus, an almost homogeneous heat transfer can be provided to inside and outside of the product, i.e. to the entire product and an almost homogeneous drying process can be carried out.
The drying process is carried out by using discontinuous type rotary drum dryers. The product desired to be dried using said dryers is placed into the drum receptacle and the drum is rotated at an angle of 70-110° towards the right and left axes without a complete round. Microwave is sent to the microwave dryer drum through a microwave generator and therefore, drying process of the products placed therein can be realized.
Mixing barriers in accordance with the volume of the drum to be used are disposed in the interior parts of the microwave dryer. Thus, the products placed into the drum for being dried can be mixed as well as inverted for each half round of the drum.

Claims

A stuffed pasta manufacturing method comprising the following steps: combining the ingredients required for the production of pasta; making said ingredients into a dough; in the stuffed pasta extrusion stage carried out using mechanical processes without any heat treatment, laminating dough and rolling thereof into a thin sheet so as to be shaped with the stuffing material; preparing appropriate stuffing material to be added to the stuffed pasta simultaneously with the extrusion; completing the shaping upon simultaneous addition of the appropriate amount of stuffing material to the pasta cut in desired shape and size; pasteurizing the shaped stuffed pasta intermediate product by being exposed to steam for a certain period of time, drying and packaging thereof, wherein said method comprises the following process steps:
- Placing the product desired to be dried into a dryer drum receptacle provided in a vacuum chamber;

- Keeping the temperature inside the vacuum chamber below 50°C and carrying out drying process for less than 90 minutes;

- Operating microwave generator device, transmitting generated microwave radiation to the drum, rotating the said drum at an angle of 70-110° towards the right and left axes without a complete round and completing the drying process.
Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the drum receptacle is made of Polypropylene (PP) material.
Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the drum receptacle comprises mixing barriers in accordance with the volume of the drum being disposed in the interior parts of said drum.
Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the temperature of the product during drying is kept below 40°C at drying process
Method according to claim 1, characterized in that moisture content of the output intermediate product is kept below 10% at drying process.