Development and quality evaluation of nutrient enriched RTE product

Abstract

As the eating patterns are changing day by day, snack foods play very important role in the diet of the modern consumer. Consumer appeal for ready‐to‐eat (RTE) products is forecast to grow rapidly as consumers demand convenient snacks with exciting sensory and textural properties. Extrusion technology has been used extensively in the production of cereal RTE snacks due to its ease of operation and ability to produce a variety of textures and shapes which appeal to consumers. So the present study was undertaken to develop ready to eat (RTE) expanded products from pulse varieties corn, mixed vegetables. The blends of six different combinations were extruded at temperature of 140ºC at a screw speed of 350 rpm and 14% feed moisture content. From these seven extruded product was evaluated for physical, colour and textural properties. The extruded products were stored in aluminium pouches and with nitrogen flushing. The physical parameters (expansion ratio, water activity, colour and textural properties), functional parameters (water absorption index and solubility index), engineering properties (colour, texture, sensory evaluation), proximate analysis (protein, carbohydrate, fat content) of RTE products were analysed. Based on sensory evaluation,Corn (60 %),Bengal gram (30%), Jackfuit seed powder(5%), Pseudostem powder(5%) RTE product was selected as the best combination out of all combinations under concern.