Pasta drying

Unless sold as a fresh product, pasta must be dried. Regulations stipulate that the water content of dried pasta must be less than 12.5%. The main purpose of drying is to ensure the microbiological and physico-chemical stability of pasta, in order to guarantee its shelf life. The reduction in water content during drying results in a decrease in water activity to a value close to 0.5. Degradation reactions are thus slowed down, even over long storage periods. In recent years, a new function has been added to this primary function of eliminating the water used for shaping: that of modifying the physico-chemical properties of dough constituents.

The physical principle of drying involves passing the pasta leaving the extruder through...