The World’s Thinnest Pasta is Much Smaller Than You Think

The world record for the thinnest pasta ever created has just been broken, but it's not dinner scientists had in mind when putting this recipe together.

There are a ton of pasta shapes and sizes that you'll find at your local grocery store. However, one you won't find is called su filindeu, which translates to "Threads of God." These noodles are about half the width of angel hair, at just 1 millimeter thick, and are a rare delicacy. Sounds small, right? Well, scientists have now found a way to make noodles even smaller.

There's a New World Record for the Thinnest Pasta

According to Science News Explores, a team of researchers has just created the world's smallest noodles made from white flour. The noodles, or rather, fibers, are about 370 nanometers thick. To put that into perspective, that's about two-hundredths the thickness of a human hair. However, you won't find these little strands of pasta at any restaurant. Rather, they’re being explored for use in biodegradable bandages.

Making Bandages with 'Starchy Nanofibers'

Similar nanofibers like these have been crafted before using pure starch instead of starch-containing flour. However, extracting that pure starch from plant matter takes a lot more energy and water. Thanks to this new study, scientists have learned that such a costly extraction isn't even needed. Plus, because the new nanofibers are made from dry flour, they are a pasta, and thus, the smallest to ever exist.

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How to Make the World's Thinnest Pasta

To make these micro noodles, the flour is mixed with formic acid, which helps uncoil the flour’s long molecules of starch. As far as stretching the dough into tiny noodles goes, scientists used a technique called electrospinning. Science News Explores explained how that worked, which you can see below.

In this process, an electrical charge pulled the dough through a needle and onto a plate several centimeters away. The starch molecules tangled with each other as they left the needle, forming a jet. As the jet flew through the air, the formic acid evaporated. This left behind a thin fiber. After about 30 minutes, the fiber formed a thin mat on the plate.

While this pasta probably doesn't taste all that great, it's pretty cool to see the ingenuity and thought put into the process. I can't imagine the amount of patience these researchers must have had for this. You can see a picture of the nanofibers captured under an electron microscope on the Science News Explores website.