PASTA MACHINE

Pasta is an Italian dish preferred universally in all countries and has great demand in global market.
Pasta is made out of mixing durum wheat known as semolina with water, extruded into various shapes
and are cooked in boiling water. Commercial production of pasta is done by various small, medium and
large scale industries and dedicated machineries are used to produce continuously and with consistent
quality.

Various processes are involved in pasta production line in sequence such as production of semolina,
mixing and kneading of flour, flavoring and coloring, rolling, pasteurization, cutting, drying and
packaging. First step is to produce the raw materials and wheat milling is the foremost. The durum
wheat is milled into semolina with the help of roll mills and the fine flour is obtained.

In mixing and kneading stage, the semolina is transferred to a giant silos and are conveyed to a flour
mixing machine. Where the flour is added with water and mixed with the help of the rotating blades and
kneaded to a dough form. Next the dough formed is flavored and colored as per requirement. In this
stage, variety of flavoring substances are added such as, eggs for egg noodle, vegetable juices, tomato
and beetroot juices for red pasta, spinach, carrot and other optional ingredients like herbs and spices
are added.

In rolling stage, the excess water content and infused air molecules are removed from the dough by
pressing it with large cylinders and it is passed on to a laminator, where the dough is converted into
sheets with an optimum water content of about 12%. The rolled and flattened dough is moved to the
pasteurization stage, where it is treated under a steamer and exposed to steam at temperature range of
about 220°F to kill any bacteria and fungus. Pasteurization is done to stop self-degradation of the
product and to increase the shelf life.

In cutting stage, the dough is either cut or extruded through dies to form various shapes of pasta.
Ribbon or string style pasta such as fettucine, spaghetti, angel hair shapes are produced by rotating
blades. Tubular hollow pastas such as ziti, elbow macaroni, fusilli are produced by extruded by passing
through dies. To form vermicelli and capellini, pasta is extruded through a perforated die. Then a cutting
machine cuts and twists to make curls. Tortellini is formed by mixing the cheese in measured quantities
in regular intervals the dough is folded and the ends are joined to form the circle. Cheese filled pasta
such as ravioli are made by dropping the cheese fillings at intervals over a pasta sheet, then covered and
closed by another sheet of pasta. Then the cheese filled sheets passed under a cutting roller to get
separated into even shaped squares.

These various shapes of pasta are dried under controlled environment by regulating the process
parameters like oxygen, heat, moisture and drying time etc. Convection heat exchangers are involved in
drying process. Drying temperature is monitored and controlled by closed loop digital temperature
controllers. The drying time varies for different pasta varieties ranging from three hours and extend up
to 12 hours. The drying time greatly influences the pasta quality as quick drying makes it brittle and slow
drying leads to spoilage. The dry pastas are sent for packing, where the measured quantities of pasta are
filled with nitrogen gas to extend the shelf life of the product.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasta_processing
https://www3.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/ch09/final/c9s09-5.pdf