Extrusion

Some examples
Licorice Extrusion
Ingredients
Wheat flour
Sugar (sucrose, corn syrup)
Gelatin or starches
Emulsifiers
Water
Color and flavor (licorice black juice,
aniseseed, caramel, berry flavors)
Dry ingredients
flour, sugar
Sugar syrup
Licorice syrup
MIXING
COOKING
Metering
EXTRUSION
Minor
Ingredients
Conveyor
COOLING TUNNEL
CUTTER
SHAPER
Cooking begins
Sugar dissolves
Starch granules hydrated
& gelatinized
Water vented & cooled
Colors & flavors added
Mixed with candy
Pressure increased just
prior to die to force
product through die
Direct Expanded Snack Foods
Ingredients
Cereal grains such as corn, wheat, rice
or oats
Water
Oil
Flavor coatings
Usually produced at high shear
Temperatures greater than 100C
Pressures kept high-water remains
liquid at T > 100C
On exit, moisture flashes from product
causing expansion
Loss of water and cooling cause
structure to set
Additional drying needed to reduce
moisture from 15% to 2-3%
Coated with oil and lfavorings
Breakfast Cereals
Breakfast Cereals
Instant
Direct expanded
Flaked
Gun puffed
Oven puffed
Shredded
http://www.ktron.com
In general: mixing, cooking, forming, texturizing, drying
Materials may be precooked
Boiling water cooker
Steam cooker
Adiabatic extrusion-high shear in
extruder creates heat
Extrusion- adiabatic plus added heat
Flaked cereals
Corn grits and/or wheat are mixed with salt, sugar, malt
etc and cooked with steam to form gelatinized mass.

Mass broken up into pieces
Cooked grain particles fed to flaking rolls. Particles
must deform without fracture.
Doughy particles pass through small gaps between
Rollers. Rough surfaces help pull particles through
nip, are compressed and flow out from the rollers
Slightly dry product helps form
irregularities. On further baking these
help form crisp texturized product
In later improvements, cooking and pieces are
formed in a screw extruder
Relatively low shear is used and modest heating.
Starch is gelatinized but excess shear damages
starch.
Die resistance is low to maintain relatively dense
strands
Die-face cutting may be unsatisfactory because
pieces are too uniform
Dry to 10-24% moisture
(tempering)
To overflow bins
On to flaking rolls
Further drying/toasting
Extrusion Puffed Cereals
Superheated gelatinized cereal
emerges from extruder die
Moisture flashes and causes puffing
Die determines shape
Typically high-shear extruders
Superheated
dough
Product puffs as moisture flashes off
Oven puffing
Used for crispy rice products

Cooked cereal piece exposed to very high temperatures

Product expands into a cellular structure

With proper moisture in the grain, this is similar to popcorn

Need: moisture inside the kernel, starch inside the kernel
and a hard shell to contain the pressure
Treated with steam cooking
to appropriate moisture level
Cooled and dried
to 9-11% moisture
Flaking
roller with
wide gap
Uniform pieces
Fluidized bed dryer
T ~ 340C
9-11% moisture
High heat raises
pressure in grain. Hard
shell keeps water from
rapidly escaping. Water
is superheated.
At some point the
pressure is sufficient to
rupture the kernel.
Water rushes out and
puffs the product.
Extruded pieces may also be oven puffed

Often extruded ribbon embossed with waffle grid,
fluting, etc to create interesting texture, then cut and
oven puffed
Baking or oven
puffing
Gun puffing
Product heated under pressure in closed vessel

Vessel suddenly opened

Decompression causes moisture to flash

Used in puffed wheat. Product looks more like original
grain than with direct oven puffing
Shredded Cereals
Extruder cooked and formed pellets fed to
shredding machinery

One roller embossed with grooves to cause
shredding
Product fed into rollers.
Pieces are extruded through
serrations in one roller, are
crushed and merged into a
continuous steam

Strands are collected on a
conveyor
Strands are collected in layers on a conveyor. Crimping
rolls form biscuit edges
To
oven
During baking, the outer layers shrink more
causing the biscuit to puff