The Effect of Extrusion on the Physicochemical Properties of third generation snacks enriched with vegetal protein

Abstract

In this research, the effect of extrusion processing variables, (temperature of zone A and zone B of the extruder, (80-120 °C), moisture content (50-55%) and chickpea content (25-25%), on the physicochemical properties of extruded products with vegetable protein were evaluated, (expansion index, bulk density and hardness), using a fractional factorial design. It was observed that there was an effect of all the variables on the physicochemical properties of the extrudates. It was found that, for the expansion index, the best processing conditions were 100 °C for the zone A, 110 °C for the zone B, 60% of moisture content and 25% of chickpea, while, for bulk density, the best processing conditions were 100 °C for the zone A, 110 °C for the zone B, 50% of moisture content and 25% of chickpea, moreover, the texture was affected by temperature, moisture content and amount of chickpea. The desirable characteristics (high expansion, low bulk density, and hardness) were obtained at high processing temperatures, high moisture and low concentration of chickpea. The fractional factorial experiment allowed to reduce the size of the experiment for further investigations.