EXTRUSION BARREL TEMPERATURE EFFECT ON TEXTURAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF READY-TO-EAT FOOD FROM CARDABA BANANA, AFRICAN YAM BEAN, AND DATES

Abstract

This work incorporated underutilized crops (cardaba banana, African yam bean, and date fruit), into composite flour used in the extrusion process of Ready-To-Eat (RTE) foods processed at two different barrel temperatures (BT) of 120 and 130 ˚C using a twin-screw extruder. Date fruit flour (DFF) served as a sweetener and binder, with a constant percentage composition for all samples. The color, texture, and physical properties of the RTEs were determined using standard procedures and equipment.

Extrusion at 120 °C BT increased the incidences of L*, a*, b*, and chroma color saturation, while BT did not affect the hue color for all RTE foods. RTEs processed at high BT had higher values of chewiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and stringiness, as well as higher force peak values. However, no significant difference (p < 0.05) was observed for the fracturability, springiness, and hardness of all the RTEs at both BTs. Lower extrusion BT resulted in increased values of weight, diameter, density, thickness, and porosity. Nevertheless, it was observed that the values for the spread ratio and volume of the RTEs increased at higher BTs. The desired textural properties for these RTE foods were achieved at a higher BT (130 ˚C), while physical properties were affected by the composition of the composite flours used.