Quick-boiling noodle production by using infrared drying

► Utilization of infrared drying in noodle production. ► Infrared (IR) provides shorter drying and cooking time. ► Infrared drying improves noodle cooking quality. ► Most of the starch granules in IR-dried noodles retained their birefringence. ► Higher level of amylose–lipid complex formation in infrared dried noodles. In this study, infrared treatment at different powers was used at drying stage of noodle production. Drying time was reduced to 3 min 30 s and 50% reduction in cooking time was obtained at the highest power. Lower cooking loss and total organic matter values, higher maximum force values were obtained for noodles dried by using infrared, indicating improved quality. Infrared treatment generally caused an increase in Rapid ViscoAnalyzer viscosity values of the noodles. Starch granules of the noodles dried by using infrared retained their birefringence to a large extent and increase in intensity of some peaks and formation of a new peak at 2 θ = 20° (V-type diffraction pattern) were observed in X-ray diffraction patterns. Relative intensities of some protein bands in SDS–PAGE patterns decreased, total dietary fiber and enzyme resistant starch contents increased slightly. Starch digestibility ( in vitro) values increased gradually as the infrared power applied increased.