NOODLES: FROM MILLING TO BLENDING TO SHEETING, COOKING & EVALUATING. KOREAN NOODLE TEAM TESTS AND TASTES U.S. SOFT & HARD WHITE WHEAT PORTLAND, OR (May 25, 2001) – Winding up week-long work by giving a taste-test to noodle products they made right at the Wheat Marketing Center’s (Portland, Oregon) laboratory and Noodle Pilot Plant, a seven-member Korean noodle team completed their survey and analysis of Soft White and Hard White Wheat samples from the year 2000 U.S. crop. The team was made up of food scientists and researchers from Dongguk University, flour millers, baking schools, and noodle manufacturers, and was led by the Senior Technical Marketing Specialist, Dr. Woojoon Park, from the Seoul office of U.S. Wheat Associates. Several on-location-milled wheat samples were blended with specific ingredient mixtures, sheeted and slitted (cut) into noodles at the Wheat Marketing Center’s Noodle Pilot Plant and given the taste-test Friday morning. The objective: to achieve desired color, taste, and texture (bite) specifically wanted by noodle consumers in Korea, using U.S. produced wheat. According to Gary Hou, Asian Products Specialist at the Wheat Marketing Center, “U.S. Hard White Wheat production today is close to 350,000 metric tons this year; consumption is expected to grow to more than one million metric tons within the next five to ten years. “This team’s purpose, as part of the 2000 Crop Asian Products Collaborative*, is to compare U.S.- grown wheat characteristics for Asian noodles against wheat grown in Australia and Canada. Our facilities, which include the only Noodle Pilot Plant in the U.S., provide efficient and fast testing of the entire process: milling, flour blending, noodle making and cooking, with the ability to test color and texture and to evaluate the products under tightly controlled research conditions,” Hou concluded. According to David Shelton, Wheat Marketing Center executive director, “This team marks more than 36 visits by international and domestic food scientists, flour millers, and food processors seeking the latest technology from laboratory research and development, testing, training, workshops, and seminars specific to wheat and wheat products. Our purpose is to develop a better understanding of international requirements for U.S. wheat.” *The Asian Products Collaborative, started in 1993, is a project of U.S. Wheat Associates and the Wheat Marketing Center with objectives to: understand Asian’s way of making and consuming noodles and other wheat products; develop standard protocols for formulation, process, and evaluation methods, and test new and existing hard white wheat varieties for use by Asian millers, noodle makers, and other food processors.   BACK Copyright© 2001-2002 Wheat Marketing Center, Inc., Portland, OR USA