Abstract
The instant-cook Chinese noodle is one of dehydrated food products recently gaining popularity in Japan. Usually, lard is used for dehydrating Chinese noodle in a deep fryer. Before being served on table, the food is again cooked in boiling water. The boiling process, however, may affect the lard which has already autoxidized in the pre-cooked noodle during the storage.
To evaluate lard in the pre-cooking stage, samples of lard used to various extents were made available from noodle manufacturers. When their chemical properties and fatty acid compositions were compared with those of fresh lard, the used lard seemed to have no remarkable deterioration. However, feeding experiment of rats with the sample lard indicated that the body weight gain of the animals from the used lard was lower than that from fresh lard.
To detect chemical change by boiling of lard contained in the noodle, samples of the food left exposed to the sunshine for months were divided into two groups. They both were subjected to ether extraction of fat, the one group without being boiled, and the other after being boiled. The results indicated that, in some samples, the boiling process reduced peroxides of fat approximately 10 per cent and increased carbonyl compounds.
