How packaged fresh pasta is made:
Most of the pasta that is sold as fresh is actually a glorified ready meal.
The main difference between dried pasta and fresh pasta, if we just consider plain pasta with no filling, is the water content.
Water content in dry pasta is maximum 12.5%. Anything over that and the pasta will mould.
In freshly made artisan pasta, the water content is between 25% and 35% (the fresher the pasta, the higher the water content). Because of the high hydratation, the pasta has to be eaten within a couple of days, because it spoils quickly.
In packaged fresh pasta, the water content is between 20% and 25%. With this amount of hydratation the pasta has a short shelf life. In fact, it does not. The average shelf life of supermarket packaged fresh pasta is 6-8 weeks. Tell me which fresh product lasts as long as this.
Supermarkets fresh pasta is made with powdered ingredients, to facilitate the production, and therefore it’s highly processed.
Once the pasta has been filled, and cut, the problem of the high water content remains. To avoid this, the pasta has to be treated to destroy or deactivate microorganisms, spores, and fungi that will lead to decay.
Some pasta is pasteurised, that is, exposed to a temperature of 63℃ (145℉) for 30 minutes either packaged or unpackaged. Some pasta is pasteurised more than once. Pasteurised pasta lasts on average 15 days. If double pasteurised, it lasts 1 month.
Other manufacturers prefer to sterilise the pasta, because it gives a very long shelf life.
Moist heat sterilisation usually involves using very high temperature(134°C -273°F) steam for a minimum of 18 minutes. Then there’s dry heat sterilisation, where the product is placed in a hot air oven at 190°C (374°F) for 12 minutes for packaged products. Half this time for unpackaged products.
The problem with heating the pasta at such high temperatures is that not only it destroys dangerous microorganisms, but also important nutrients. It also affects the quality of the taste and the texture.
There are several ways to sterilise food, some of which involves using chemicals. I am not going to go in depth here, but I feel this is something you need to know before you buy that stuff. I don’t know how many times I have heard people tell me that they only buy fresh pasta (meaning the supermarket packaged variety) because it’s better. I beg to differ!!!!
