Extrusion technology in food processing

Points to be covered

 Introduction
 Advantages of extrusion
 Principle of extrusion
 Classification of extrusion
 Different parts of extruders
 Characteristics of extruded product
 Factors affecting extrusion cooking
 Case study
 What is extrusion?
Extrusion is a modern (HTST) cooking process in which heat transfer, mass
transfer, pressure changes, and shear are combined to produce effects such as
 Mixing
 Cooking
 Sterilization
 Texturizing
 puffing
 Kneading
 Shearing
 Shaping
 Forming
It is very import technology in manufacturing of pasta, ready to eat cereals, snacks
and pet food.
History of extrusion
Extruded foods
 Advantages of extrusion
 Adaptability
Full-fill the demand of customers for new verities of product.
 Product characteristics
Variety of products having different shape, color, texture and appearance can be
produced.
 Energy efficient
Low moisture cooking and lees re-drying needed.
 Low cost
We can save about 19% of raw materials, 14% labor and 44% capital investment.
 Less space
More compact and less space requirement than any other cooking technique.
 Popularity of extrusion cooking
 Versatility
A wide range of product by changing the ingredients, operating conditions and die.
 Cost
High productivity at lower cost.
 Productivity
Continuous operation with high output.
 Product quality
It is an HSTS method and coked products retain most of the heat sensitive
components.
 Environment friendly
Produce lesser significant process effluents.
Principle of extrusion cooking
 Cont.

 Raw materials are allowed into the extruder barrel, the screw(s) then convey the food
along with it.
 Down the barrel, smaller flights restrict the volume and increase the resistance to
movement of material
 As it moves further along the barrel, the screw kneads the material into semi-solid,
plasticized mass.
 Food is heated above 100ºC, the process is known as extrusion cooking or hot
extrusion.
 Creation of heat due to shear friction and addition of external heat cause gelatinization
of starch.
 Finally passed through one or more restricted dies at the discharge end, expands to
final shape and cool quickly.
 Classification

By Direction By Operating By Equipment

• Direct/Indirect
temperature • Horizontal
• Forward/Backward • Hot • Vertical
• Cold
 Direct & Indirect Extrusion

 Direct: The material is placed in a

container and driven through the die
by the ram.

 Indirect: In this method, the die remains

stationary and the container with the billet
moves.
 Forward & Backward Extrusion

 Forward: Feed is forced to flow in the same direction as the ram.

 Backward: Feed is forced to flow in the opposite direction to the ram movement.
 Hot extrusion

It is at in a high temperature nearly 50-75%

of the boiling point of the product to be extruded.
In addition to the usual benefit to the heat
processing, extrusion offers the possibility of
modifying the functional properties of food
ingredients.

The extruder is viewed as a continuous chemical

reactor processing biopolymers and food mixes at high temperatures (up to 250°C) for relatively
short residence times (usually 1-2 min). Pressure can be as 25MPa.
.
 Cold extrusion
In this process, the product is extruded without cooking or distortion of the food. The
extruder has a deep-flighted screw, which operates at a low speed in a smooth barrel, to
knead and extrude the material with little friction. Used in preparation of hot dog, pasta,
pastry dough and some types of confectionary etc.
Pasta Processing
 Different parts of extruders
 Feed section
The portion of the screw which accepts food materials at feed port.
It assures sufficient martial moved or conveyed down the screw.
 Compression section
The portion of the screw between the feed and metering section.
Food ingredients are normally heated, worked into continuous
dough mass and partially cooked in elevated pressure and
temperature.
 Metering section
A portion near discharge section with shallow flights.
The metering section continuously feed the die with
Material at constant pressure.
 Cont.
 Feeder
Provides a uniform delivery of materials which are
often sticky and non-free-flowing. It regulates the
rate/pressure of the flow.
 Barrel or sleeves
The barrel is divided into feeding, kneading section.
They are often jacketed to permit circulating of
steam or superheated oil for heating and cold
water or air for cooling.
 Screw
The most important component which conveys the materials.
Cont.
 Cont.

 Die or nozzle
It has two main functions: to give shape and provide resistance.
It can be of various design and number of orifices.
It increases pressure, residence time and energy input.

 Cutting mechanism
Must permit obtaining the final product with uniform size
and the product size is determined by the rotation seeped of
cutting blades. The mechanism can be vertical or horizontal.
 Characteristics of extruded products
 Degree of expansion on exit from the extruder
The sudden release of pressure when exiting the extruder causes water to flash off and help the
product to expand.
 Bulk density
The density of the final product depends upon the nature of the solid material as well as the
amount of the airspace within the product.
 Mechanical properties
Physical and rheological properties determine the characteristics of the extruded products.
These may be characterized by hardness or crispiness or may be expressed as the fundamental
parameters as elastic modulus.
 Internal moisture
The arrangement of the components of the extruded products leads to the physical properties
described above. The state of starch, whether partially or completely gelatinized, in the final
product strongly influences the physical characteristics.
 Cont.
 Protein Quality
Nature of extruded proteins depends on the extruder operating conditions such as temperature
profile. High heat treatment causes denaturation of many proteins, that influence physical
characteristics such as viscosity.
 Starch Characteristics
Properties of starch in an extruded product that influence the quality characteristics such as water
solubility index, water absorption index and enzyme susceptibility. All these depend upon the
operating parameter of the extruder as well as the quality of the materials used.
 Factors affecting extrusion cooking

 Rheological properties of the materials used

 Process temperature
 Process pressure
 Diameter of die apparatus
 Shear rate
 Moisture content
 Feed rate
 Screw speed
 Screw design
 Case study: Effects of cold extrusion process on thiamine
and riboflavin contents of fortified corn extrudates.
Objective:
To produce fortified corn extrudates by conventional and cold extrusion techniques at different
barrel temperatures and feed moisture contents.
To study the effects of process variables on thiamine and riboflavin contents by high-
performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) as well as expansion index, bulk density, SEM
properties of these extrudates produced from fortified corn extrudates.
 Materials and Instruments

 Corn flour
 Methanol (HPLC grade)
 Potassium hexacyanoferrate
 Water(HPLC grade)
 Sodium hydroide
 Sodium acetate trihydrate
 Sulphuric acid
 Takadiastase enzyme
 Twin screw extruder
 HPLC
 Methods

Extrusion process
Sample preparation:
Corn flour was enriched with Vitamin B using a Vitamin Premix (DSM Nutritional
Products Europe Ltd., Switzerland) The premix was diluted with several steps to
achieve the reasonable and uniform level of mixing without concentrated pockets of
premix.
 Extrusion methods applied

 Conventional extrusion process:

Extruded in twin screw extruder with a 25:1 screw to diameter ratio. The equipped die
size is 3mm. Water was injected into the feed system to adjust the moisture content to
20% and 25 %. The temperature variations that are taken are 80,110 and 130°C.

 Cold extrusion process with CO2 gas injection:

Barrel temperature was maintained at 80°C. CO2 was injected to the barrel with
1MPa pressure through a valve.
 Experiments

Other measurements are

 Moisture content
 Expansion index and Bulk density
 SEM analysis
 Thiamine and riboflavin content
 Chromatographic determination
 Analytics method validation
Results: At different temperature and moisture
content corn flour extrudates
Results: SEM analysis
 Results: expansion index and bulk density
Type of extrusion Barrel temperature Feed moisture Expansion index Bulk density
(°C) content (%)
80 20 3.87 0.068

80 25 2.52 0.159

110 20 3.52 0.064

Convectional
extrusion 110 25 1.86 0.148

130 20 2.46 0.075

130 25 1.86 0.116

80 20 2.12 0.194
Cold extrusion
80 25 1.87 0.208
 Results: Thiamine and Riboflavin content at
different temperature and moisture content
Type of extrusion Barrel temperature Feed moisture content Thiamine Riboflavin
(°C) (%) (μg/ml) (μg/ml)

80 20 11.4 15.2

80 25 13.3 15.3

110 20 8.2 15.0

Convectional
extrusion 110 25 12.7 14.7

130 20 6.3 15.1

130 25 10.5 10.2

80 20 12.2 15.7
Cold extrusion
80 25 13.8 15.7
 Conclusions

 Cold extrusion process with CO2 gas injection makes it possible to modify the structure of
extrudates from fortified corn flour.
 The use of decreased barrel temperatures enables a higher retention of heat labile vitamins and
high-temperature transformations to be carried out in the extruder in combination with structure
creation other than by steam.
 better structure formation could be obtained by carbon dioxide injection as well as the increase
in retention of heat sensitive micronutrients like thiamine.
 Cold extrusion advantages and
disadvantages over hot extrusion
Advantages:
 Lack of oxidation
 Higher strength due to cold working
 Closer tolerances
 Good surface finish
 Good mechanical properties due to severe cold working as long as the
temperatures created are below the recrystallization temperatures
 Cleaner work environment
Disadvantages:
 Higher lubrication cost
 Higher loads
 Limited state complexity
 Limited deformation
 References
 Berna Bilgi Boyaci, Jay-Yoon Han, M. Tugrul Masactiogclu, Sueda Cleik. (2012). Effects on cold
extrusion process on Thiamin and riboflavin contents of fortified corn extrudates. Journal of food
chemistry, 132:2165-2170.
 Frank A. Manthey, Saujanya R. Yalla, Todd J. Dick, and Mohammud badarauddin. (2004). Extrusion
properties and cooking quality of sphagetti containing Buckwheat bran flour. Journal of cereal chemistry,
81(2):232-236.
 J. Abecasis, R. Abbou, M. Chaurand, M.-H. Morel, P. Vernoux. (1994). Influence of extrusion conditions
on Extrusion Speed, Temperature, Pressure in the Extruder and on Pasta quality. Journal of cereal
chemistry, 71(3):247-253.
 Maud petitot, Joel Abcasis and Valeria Micard. (2009). Structuring of pasta components during processing:
impact on starch and protein digestibility and allergenicity. Trend in food science & technology, 20:521-
532.
 Nilofar Athar, Allan Hardcare, Grant Taylor, Suzanna Clark. (2006). Vitamin retention in extruded food
products. Journal of food composition and analysis, 19:379-383.
 Ranjit Bordoloi, Subha Ganguly. (2014). extrusion technique in food processing and a review on its
various technological parameters. Indian Journal of Scientific Research and Technology, 2(1):1-3.
Thank you