AgweekTV recently aired a story on Northern Crops Institute's Pasta Production and Technology Course that was held on April 12-14, 2016. Watch the story by clicking here.
The Northern Crops Institute (NCI) hosted plant managers, production directors, research and development managers, and technologists from various pasta companies on Tuesday, April 12 through Thursday, April 14. During the course, approximately 20 participants heard various speakers and learned the fundamentals of pasta production processing and quality assurance.
Course participants had the opportunity to do hands-on pilot-scale pasta processing that was followed by a cooking exercise to evaluate the final product. Group activities included an exercise in identifying pasta processing defects, and a field trip to a pasta manufacturer. There was also quality tests employed in the evaluation of raw materials (wheat, semolina, flour) and a demonstration of the finished products.
The main purpose of the course was to provide an introduction to the fundamental and applied aspects of manufacturing extruded pasta products and also included:
Raw material quality criteria
Impact of specifications and processing variables
Northern Crops Institute (NCI) supports regional agriculture and value-added processing by conducting educational and technical programs that expand and maintain domestic and international markets for northern-grown crops. NCI is funded by the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota and commodity groups in those states and Montana.