Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / There is an opportunity to develop an instant noodle manufacturing plant in Argentina to manufacture and market branded and private-label instant noodles. This opportunity has arisen from a number of factors. First, the increasing time compression that confronts consumers has created an emergence of consumers who are looking for quick meals that are also healthy. Second, the growing incomes that are being experienced across all income classes have created a demand for processed food products across all consumer markets. Third, potential competitors are not seeing the market trends and, thus, create an opportunity to gain a first mover advantage in this burgeoning market. Finally, the policies that are being developed by the government have created an import-replacement mentality that presents significant opportunities to build specific strategic alliances to seize an opportunity such as this one. This thesis presents the feasibility of seizing this opportunity to build a manufacturing facility to produce and market instant noodles in Argentina. It assesses the technical and economic dimensions of the feasibility process and presents financial analyses of the potential outcome for investors. The researcher is leading the project and participating in the investment process. Therefore, the outcome of this thesis has direct implications for the wellbeing of the researcher beyond partial fulfillment of degree requirements. The results show that the opportunity is credible and profitable over a 20-year period. The Net Present Value of the investment is positive and its Internal Rate of Return of 26 percent is higher than the company’s hurdle rate of 15 percent. To this end, it suggested that the investment must go ahead. However, the sensitivity analysis shows that at the initial production level of 60,000 packets per shift, the project is very sensitive to the number of shifts that are run per day. Indeed, if the company runs one shift for the first three years instead of the first two years and two shifts for the next three years instead of Years 3 and 4, the project is not economically feasible. On the other hand, building a larger plant, one that produces 120,000 packets per shift, protects the plant from this vulnerability. The internal rate of return is 40 percent and the NPV is in excess of $5 million over 20 years. Therefore, the recommendation is to build the larget plant and enhance the robustness of the plant.

Orientador: Yoon Kil Chang / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T11:10:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VernazaLeoro_MariaGabriela_D.pdf: 8287795 bytes, checksum: a64048a016fa41109e78ee329b64b6fb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A demanda por produtos com melhor qualidade nutricional e funcional tem aumentado nos últimos anos. O mercado de alimentos funcionais está aumentando no Brasil apresentando um crescimento superior a 50 % desde 2002. A soja e seus derivados apresentam grande potencial no mercado de alimentos funcionais, especialmente devido à presença das isoflavonas e ao alto teor protéico. Por outro lado, o amido resistente, considerado como um componente da fibra alimentar, não é digerido pelas enzimas presentes no sistema digestóriio dos seres humanos, mas pode ser fermentado pelas bactérias presentes no cólon, produzindo ácidos graxos de cadeia curta, trazendo benefociios á saúde das pessoas. O mercado mundial de macarrão instantâneo vem crescendo a taxas relativamente altas, maior do que o índice apresentado por sua própria categoria (massas alimentícias). O macarrão instantâneo, por ser um produto frito, contém uma alta porcentagem de óleo. Atualmente existe uma grande preocupação relacionada à saúde e ao consumo de alimentos com alto teor de gordura. Por isso, existe a necessidade de desenvolver produtos com melhor valor nutricional e a importância na utilização de novas tecnologias. A fritura a vácuo é uma forma alternativa de cozimento, a qual aumenta a qualidade dos alimentos desidratados. O objetivo geral deste trabalho visou o desenvolvimento de macarrão instantâneo funcional pela adição de amido resistente e isolado protéico de soja obtidos pelos processos de fritura convencional e a vácuo. Para alcançar o objetivo geral, o trabalho foi realizado em 3 etapas: i) Estudo da adição de sal (0-3 %) e de goma guar (0-1,5 %) na produção de macarrão instantâneo obtido pelo processo de fritura convencional, otimizando-se a formulação através da Metodologia de Superfície de Resposta, para obter um produto com características tecnológicas adequadas (baixo teor de gordura e boa firmeza); ii) Estudo da adição de 10 % de três amidos resistentes comerciais diferentes (Hi Maize 260, Promitor e farinha de banana verde) para estudar as propriedades reológicas e escolher a melhor formulação para obtenção de macarrão instantâneo funcional obtido pelos processos de fritura convencional e a vácuo, visando-se a obtenção de um produto com baixo teor de gordura, boa textura e alto teor final de amido resistente, e por ótimo; iii) Estudo da adição de amido resistente tipo 3 (AR3) (0-16 %) e de isolado protéico de soja (0-16 %) na produção de macarrão instantâneo obtido pelos processos de fritura convencional e a vácuo, visando-se a otimização da formulação através da Metodologia de Superfície de Resposta, com intuito de obter um produto com melhores características tecnológicas (baixo teor de gordura e boa firmeza), funcionais e nutricionais (alto teor de fibra e de proteína). Na primeira etapa, os resultados mostraram que a adição de goma guar e sal à formulação de macarrão instantâneo alteraram as propriedades da massa e a qualidade do produto final. Os maiores valores de absorção de gordura e os menores valores de firmeza foram obtidos quando utilizados valores médios das duas variáveis, enquanto que os menores valores foram alcançados ao utilizar os níveis extremos, ou seja, altos níveis de uma variável e baixos da outra, ou vice versa. Analisando os resultados obtidos no delineamento central composto rotacional (DCCR) foi possível escolher uma formulação adequada para dar continuidade ao estudo. Portanto, foi escolhido como ponto ótimo uma formulação com 0,22 % de goma guar e 2 % de sal para obter macarrões instantâneos de boa qualidade, com um teor de gordura moderadamente mais baixo e uma firmeza intermediária. Na segunda etapa, as misturas de farinha de trigo com 10 % de Hi Maize (HM10) (AR2) e Promitor (Prom10) (AR3) n? afetaram significativamente as propriedades reológicas da massa, quando comparados com a mistura com 10 % de farinha de banana verde (Ban10) que alterou significativamente a estabilidade da massa e o indice de tolerância à mistura. Os macarrões instantâneos Prom10 apresentaram as melhores propriedades tecnológicas, sendo que foram obtidos os menores valores de absorção de gordura e os maiores valores de firmeza, quando comparados com os macarrões instantâneos HM10 e Ban10. De uma forma geral, as amostras obtidas pelo processo de fritura a vácuo apresentaram menor teor de gordura, quando comparados aos macarrões obtidos pelo processo de fritura convencional. Concluindo, foi possível obter macarrões instantâneos funcionais com as três formulações diferentes estudadas, pois as amostras apresentaram um teor de amido resistente maior que 3 %, podendo ser declarados como fonte de fibra pela legislação brasileira. Na terceira etapa, as superfícies de resposta mostraram que a adição de amido resistente AR3 e de isolado protéico de soja diminuiu a absorção de gordura quando utilizados os dois processos de fritura (convencional e vácuo). No entanto, os macarrões instantâneos obtidos pelo processo de fritura convencional apresentaram teores de gordura maiores (18,28 - 25,09 %) do que os obtidos pelo processo de fritura a vácuo (18,08 e 22,26 %). Em ambos os processos foi possível obter macarrões instantâneos com um teor de amido resistente significativo (acima de 3 % para todos os ensaios). Na analise de textura, os macarrões obtidos pelo processo de fritura convencional apresentaram uma firmeza maior do que os obtidos pelo processo de fritura a vácuo. As superfícies de resposta mostraram que a adição de amido resistente e de isolado protéico de soja afetaram a firmeza dos macarrões devido à diluição das proteínas do glúten, apresentando macarrões menos firmes. Finalmente, independente do processo de fritura utilizado, ao adicionar 12 % de AR3 e 8 % de IPS foi possível desenvolver um produto funcional com alto teor de fibras, alto teor de proteínas, presença de isoflavonas e com um perfil de aminoácidos melhorado / Abstract: A higher demand for products with better quality has increased the use of new ingredients and new technologies. Therefore, nowadays, there is a greater demand for functional foods. The functional food market is growing in Brazil, showing a 50 % increase since 2002. Soybean and its derivatives present good potential in the functional food market, especially due to the presence of isoflavones and the quality of its protein and polypeptides. On the other hand, resistant starch, considered as a food fiber component, is poorly digested by the enzymes present in the human digestive system, but can be fermented by bacteria present in the colon, producing short chain fatty acids that provide health benefits to the consumer. The world instant noodle market has been growing at relatively high rates, higher than the rate presented by the category as a whole. Since they are fried products, instant noodles contain high levels of residual oil. Currently, there is a considerable concern about health with respect to the consumption of high fat foods. Therefore, there is a need to develop products with enhanced nutritional value and the use of new technologies. The vacuum frying process is an alternative way of cooking, which increases the quality of dehydrated foods when compared to the conventional deep-frying process. The objective of the present work was to develop instant noodles with functional properties, using both conventional and vacuum frying processes to reduce oil absorption and hence caloric content, by the partial substitution of wheat flour with soy protein isolate and resistant starch. To achieve the overall objective, the work was divided into three stages: i) Study of the addition of salt (0-3 %) and guar gum (0-1.5 %) in the production of instant noodles optimizing the formulation by Response Surface Methodology to obtain a product with appropriate technological characteristics (low in fat and good texture); ii) Study of the addition of 10 % of three different commercial resistant starches, such as Hi Maize (HM) (RS2), Promitor (Prom) (RS3) and green banana flour (GBF) to analyze the rheological properties to produce the best formulation of functional instant noodles obtained by both conventional and vacuum frying, in order to obtain a product with adequate technological properties (low in fat, good texture and high content of resistant starch), and finally, iii) Study of the addition of type 3 resistant starch (RS3) (0-16 %) and soy protein isolate (0-16 %) in the production of instant noodles obtained by conventional and vacuum frying, in order to optimize the formulation by Response Surface Methodology with the objective of obtaining a product with adequate technological properties (low fat and good texture) and high nutritional value (high fiber and protein). In the first stage, the results showed that the addition of guar gum and salt to instant noodles formulation changed the properties of the dough and the final product quality. The highest values of fat absorption and the lowest values of firmness were obtained when intermediate levels of the two variables were used, whereas the lowest values were achieved when using the extreme levels, i.e. high levels of one variable and low of the another, or vice versa. Analyzing the results obtained from the central composite rotational design (CCRD) it was possible to choose a suitable formulation to continue the next stages. Therefore, the instant noodles considered optimum in this stage contained 0.22 % guar gum and 2 % salt, resulting in a product of good quality, with significant lower fat content and intermediate firmness. In the second stage, mixtures of wheat flour with 10 % Hi Miaze 260 (HM10) (RS2) and Promitor (Prom10) (RS3) did not significantly affect dough¿s rheological properties when compared to the mixture with 10 % green banana flour (Ban10), that changed drastically the dough stability and the mixing tolerance index. Prom10 noodles presented the best technological properties, obtaining the lowest values of fat absorption and the highest values of firmness. In general, samples obtained by the vacuum frying process had lower fat content, compared to the samples obtained by the conventional frying process. Using the three different formulations, it was possible to obtain functional instant noodles because all samples presented a resistant starch content higher than 3 %, being possible to be claimed as source of fiber according to the Brazilian Legislation. In the third stage, the response surfaces showed that the addition of both resistant starch and soy protein isolate decreased fat absorption when using both frying processes (conventional and vacuum). However, instant noodles obtained by the conventional frying process presented higher levels of fat than those obtained by vacuum frying. In both cases there was a decrease in resistant starch content. In the texture analysis, noodles obtained by the conventional frying process presented higher firmness values than those obtained with the vacuum frying process. The response surfaces showed that resistant starch and soy protein isolate addition affected the firmness of noodles because of the dilution of gluten proteins, showing noodles with lower firmness. In conclusion, regardless of the frying process used in this study, when added 12 % of RS3 and 8 % of soy protein isolate, it was possible to develop a functional product with high fiber content (close to 8 %), high protein content (close to 11 %), isoflavones and with an improved amino acid profile / Doutorado / Doutor em Tecnologia de Alimentos