Extrusion Technology: Solution to Develop Quality Snacks for Malnourished Generation

Abstract

In developing countries malnutrition accounts for half of the deaths of children under 5 years of age. Africa and Asia bear the greatest share of all forms of malnutrition. Various food processing techniques have the potential to increase the nutrient density, nutrient bioavailability, food safety, storage stability, palatability, and convenience of supplemental foods which are suitable for infant feeding. These technologies used for preparation of weaning foods include roasting, germination, milling, baking, cooking, drying, fermentation, and extrusion. A majority of world population suffers from qualitative and quantitative insufficiency of dietary protein and calories intake. In all such cases physiological maintenance and growth are impaired, and malnutrition results. In this context extrusion is a beneficial process. Extrusion is one of the commonly adopted processing technique by food industries which employs mixing, forming, texturing and cooking to develop a novel food product. It is one of the contemporary food processing technologies applied for development of variety of snacks, specialty and supplementary foods. The versatility of extrusion technology makes it convenient for development of nutritionally rich extruded products with wide range of raw material and useful as a source of vehicle for value addition. Extruded products have less moisture, longer shelf life, microbiologically safe and there are plenty of ways to make value added and fortified extruded products with combination of different raw materials. This review comprehensively covers the potential of extrusion technology in development of various types of value added extruded products that can be popularized for combating malnutrition globally.