Chemical and nutritional changes in food

during extrusion
 Introduction.
Critical factors.
Starch.
Dietary fibre.
Protein.
Vitamins.
Minerals.
Natural toxins.
Flavours.
 Within the extruder barrel, unique chemical transformations
occur. These changes, coupled with the variable composition
of foods, present a significant challenge to food scientists.
Five general chemical or physiochemical changes can occur
during extrusion cooking:
Binding
Cleavage
Loss of native conformation
Re-combination of fragments
Thermal degradation
 Composition of feed materials is altered by physical losses
including leakage of oil and evaporation of water and volatile
compounds at the die.
Most chemical reaction occurs near barrel just before the die,
thermally labile compounds such as flavors and vitamins may
be injected at that site to minimize exposure to heat and shear.
The factors influence the viscosity of the food within the
extruder barrel, the residence time of the material in the
extruder, and the shear applied to the food.
The type of extruder certainly affects chemical reactions.
larger extruders have longer barrels and relatively longer
residence times than laboratory-scale extruders
 Following are the factors that influence chemical
changes during extrusion:

Primary Secondary
Barrel temperature Mass(product)
Die geometry temperature
Extruder model Pressure
Feed composition Specific mechanical
Feed moisture energy
Feed particle size
Feed rate
Screw configuration
Screw speed
 Starchy grains and tubers are the major sources of energy in
the diet; therefore starch changes during extrusion have
important nutritional effects.
Although complete gelatinization did not occur under the
extrusion conditions used, extrusion greatly increased the
enzyme digestibility of wheat bran and whole flour starch.
Lipids, sucrose, salt and dietary fiber modulate gelatinization
of starchy foods and may affect expansion and other physical
properties.
The highly branched structure of amylopectin is prone to
shear, but amylose & amylopectin may decrease in molecular
weight.
 The extent of starch degradation was greater for wheat than
for corn. Wheat flour starch molecular weight was best
retained by higher die temperature(185C) and feed moisture
20%.
Extrusion can be used to direct molecular degradation in order
to manufacture dextrin or glucose. High shear conditions are
necessary to maximize conversion of starch to glucose..
Although enzymes are usually inactivated during extrusion,
thermally stable enzymes added to starch prior to extrusion
increase the reaction rate within the barrel.
An important consequence of starch degradation is reduced
expansion
 Factors Increasing Expansion of Starchy Materials are
Following:

Extrusion Factors Feed Factors

Barrel temperature() Moisture content()

Screw configuration Amylose content()
Die diameter/length Dietary fiber, protein,
ratio (varies) lipid content (generally
)
 Starch digestibility is largely dependent upon full
gelatinization. High digestibility is essential for specialized
nutritional foods such as infant and weaning food.
Creation of resistant starch by extrusion may have value in
reduced caloric products. Adding citric acid or high-amylose
cornstarch to cornmeal prior to extrusion increase resistant
starch and dietary fiber but flavor is limiting factor.
Cellulose added to cornstarch decreased starch solubility.
Modified starch can be prepared by Reactive Extrusion.
 Complexes of lipids within amylose can be formed during
many food processes, including extrusion. Low feed moisture
(19%) and low barrel temperature (110-140C) result in
complex formation between stearic acid and normal
cornstarch with 25% amylose.
Enzymatic hydrolysis of amioca, a, waxy corn starch results in
materials that gel readily.
Extruded high amylopectin cornstarch retained most (14)
glycosidic bonds and was highly water dispersible
 Compounds that are not digest by amylase and protease and
are also insoluble in 80% aqueous ethanol.
X-ray diffraction pattern of corn fiber-cornstarch blends shows
no change in pattern before and after extrusion.
Extrusion did not affect uronic acids in foods studied.
Soluble NSP(non-starch polysaccharides)was higher after
extrusion in oatmeal and potato peels; no difference was found
in cornmeal.
Extrusion reduced pectin and hemicelluloses molecular
weight, resulting in a threefold increase in water solubility of
sugar beet pulp fiber.
 Although grinding increased pea hull soluble fiber to 8%,
extrusion resulted in soluble fiber levels over 10%.
Extrusion significantly increased soluble fiber in beans but
insoluble fiber was decreased only in sample extruded at the
low moisture content.
The advantage of increased soluble fiber in foods is due to
health benefits attributed to soluble fiber. It is not clear
whether the soluble fiber created during extrusion has the
same health effects as naturally soluble materials.
 Extruded grains contained higher soluble fiber and soluble
glucans increased slightly in extruded barley and oats. Lower
total serum and liver cholesterol levels were found in young
rats fed extruded barley and oats.
The viscosity of aqueous suspensions of extruded grains were
higher. Viscous gums and other soluble fibers may reduce
cholesterol level by trapping bile acids.
Extrusion conditions of 110C barrel temperature and 30%
feed moisture significantly reduced the ability of potato peels
to bind the carcinogen.
 Protein:
Several changes in protein occur during extrusion;
denaturation is undoubtedly the most important. Most
enzymes lose their activity within the extruder unless they are
stable to heat and shear.
Protein solubility in water or dilute solutions decreased after
extrusion. During extrusion, disulfide bonds are broken and
may re-form. The formation of new bonds during extrusion is
controversial.
 High molecular weight proteins can dissociate into smaller
subunits. Insolubility due to disulfide bonds was highest in
soy extruded at 40% feed moisture but decreased with
increasing barrel temperature at both moisture levels.
Millard reactions occur during extrusion, particularly at higher
barrel temperature s and at low feed moisture.
Functional Changes:
Reduced solubility in water and diluted buffer
Texturization
 Nutritional Changes:
Reduced lysine
Improved digestibility
Reduced essential amino acids
One problem was brittleness of the fibers.
The addition of glycerol during extrusion or chemical
treatments post extrusion reduced brittleness.
LIPIDS:
High fat materials are generally not extruded .
Lipid level over 5-6 % impair extruder performance.
 Lipid is released from cells due to cooking and physical
disruption of plant cell walls.
Food lipid contents appears to be lower after extrusion .
Some lipid may b lost at the die as free oil, but this situation
only occur with high- fat materials such as whole soy.
When extrudates are digested with acid or amylase, then
extracted with solvent, lipid recovery is higher.
Wheat bran has a less starch than the whole grain, had more
free lipid after extrusion, presumably because lipid- amylose
complexes not formed.
 In fact extrusion can prevent free fatty acids release by
denaturing hydrolytic enzymes.
Fatty acids are a problem in foods because they are more
susceptible to oxidation than are triglycerides. Fatty acids also
produced off -flavors.
Lipid oxidation can rapidly deteriorate sensory and nutritional
qualities of foods and feed.
Lipid oxidation probably does not take place during extrusion
due to the short residence time for most extrusion processes.
 However rancidity is a concern for extruded products during
storage.
Factors that increases oxidation:
Screw wear
Expansion
Low water activity
Factors that reduce oxidation:
Enzymes inactivation
Formation of antioxidant compounds via Millard reactions
Lipid amylose complexes
 Vitamins differ greatly in composition, their stability during
extrusion is also variable.
Minimizing temperature and shear within the extruder protects
most vitamins.
Among the lipid soluble vitamins, vitamin D and k are fairly
stable.
Vitamins A and E and their related compounds, carotenoids
and tocopheroles, respectively, are not stable in the presence
of oxygen and heat.
High barrel temperature (200 C compared with 125 C) reduce
all trans beta- carotene in wheat flour by over 50%.
 Oxidation contributed to the loss since added BHT or
extrusion under nitrogen resulted in smaller pigment looses.
The water soluble vitamins most susceptible to thermal
processing is thiamine. Thiamine stability during extrusion is
highly variable losses range between 5-100%.
High thiamine looses when no water was added during
extrusion, but riboflavin (B2) and niacin were not affected.
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is also sensitive to heat and
oxidation.
This vitamin decreased in wheat flour when extruded at higher
barrel temperatures at fairly low moisture (10%).
 Extrusion Parameters That Increase Vitamin Destruction:
By increasing barrel and mass temperature.
By increasing screw speed.
By increasing specific energy input.
By reducing feed moisture.
By reducing die diameter.
By reducing throughput
Added vitamin C was fairly stable in a model extruded
breakfast cereal containing blueberry concentrate, but looses
were greater in similar products without blueberry
concentrate.
 Minerals are essential for health, these are quite stable in
extrusion as they are little stable in other food processing
techniques.
Main points.
Binding of minerals with fibre and other macromolecules.
Addition of minerals or fortification.
High fibre diets impair mineral absorption as phytates
in whole grains bind minerals.
Extrusion affect mineral absorption by altering
phytates.
It reduce phytates level in wheat flour.
 Foods with high fibre increase the transfer of metal from
screw and barrel to the food as iron level increased up to 38%
due to extrusion.
Fortification of minerals have problems as iron form
complexes with phenolic compounds that are dark in color and
detract from the appearance of foods.
PHYTOCHEMICALS:
Although they are non nutritient chemicals in food but they
also have some beneficial effects as genistein and
phytoestrogen help to prevent breast cancer.
Extrusion effect on these compounds, these are significantly
reduced.
 these compounds these are significantly reduced.
Phenolic compounds act as anti oxidant and have health
benefits extrusion decrease total phenolics mainly chlorogenic
acid.
Total anthocyanins reduce significantly by extrusion .
NATURAL TOXINS:
On of the most important benefits of extrusion cooking is the
reduction of toxins and ant nutrients.
Issues:
Many foods contain trypsin inhabitors( TI) long term
consumption of it can cause impaired growth and pancreatic
hypertrophy. Heat not shear can inactivate it.
 Another issue is of food allergens extrusion cannot eliminate
allergenic proteins in foods, kneading disc screw elements permits
allergen reductions. Denaturation occur with increased shear.
Effects on different toxins:
Several natural toxins reduced by extrusion as
Lectin and -amylase eradicated completely , canavanine was not
effected by extrusion.
Major glycoalkaloids reduced during twin screw extrusion.
Chemicals used during storage as chlorpropham and fungicide were
not eliminated.
Ammonia in combination with extrusion decrease glucosinolates.
High barrel temp was most effective in reducing rafinose and
stachyose which are un desirable in food.
 Extrusion is HTST technique so there is little time for
flavor development, thermal degradation can occur.
Volatile flavors flash off with water vapors.
Effects:
Non volatile Millard reaction.
Post extrusion flavoring.
Millard reaction occur due to wheat starch, lysine and
glucose.
Major volatile recovered at low temp and high moisture.
Higher barrel temp and lower feed moisture favored
formation of Millard compounds.
 Post extrusion flavoring is often used to improve acceptability.
Retention of flavor highest in starch extrudates when flavors
directly injected into barrel
Use of low feed moisture and use of raw starch instead of
pregelatinized starch improved flavor retention.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS:
Food scientists and engineers should focus on the relationship
between compositional changes and product quality, both
nutritional and sensory.
Very different mechanisms may occur during high moisture
extrusion, creating new line of research objectives.
Book:
Introduction to extruders and their
principles.