Hydrothermal treatments using HMT and ANN could be offered
as an alternative for the rice noodle industry. Rice noodles prepared
by these methods resulted in similar eating quality to noodles made
from commercial rice flours, but with a safe and completely natural
product concept. Fresh rice noodles require a softer texture, which
could best be obtained by ANN. Semi-dried and dried noodles need
higher tensile strength and gel hardness, for which HMT was more
appropriate. The low amylose leaching in hydrothermally treated
rice flour gave a ‘‘clean and smooth’’ noodle surface, which is
instrumental in the quality of rice noodles.