Work

Regulating Extruded Expanded Food Quality Through Extrusion Die Geometry and Processing Parameters

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Quality regulation of extruded expanded foods represents a critical technological challenge in this field. Current research has predominantly focused on the impact of extrusion processing parameters, largely overlooking the regulatory role of die structure. This study presents an integrated “CFD + Extrusion Process” methodology to systematically explore the effects of die design and process conditions on expanded product quality. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations evaluated the influence of nozzle number (12–15) and L/D ratio (1.25–2.5) on flow uniformity, the CFD results identified an optimal die configuration of 14 nozzles with L/D = 1.25, which minimized flow variance (velocity variance: 1.09 × 10−5 (m/s)2; viscosity variance: 2.777 (Pa·s)2) and established a stable flow foundation. Building on this, the RSM-based experiments revealed how process parameters specifically fine-tune quality attributes: screw speed and moisture content significantly (p < 0.05) affected Water Absorption Index (WAI) and Water Solubility Index (WSI), whereas moisture and temperature were the dominant factors (p < 0.05) governing bulk density and starch gelatinization. The findings of this study can provide a theoretical reference for the precise control of the quality of expanded food products.

Source: Foods

DOI: 10.3390/foods15010078

Authors: Qi Zhang, Runzhe Zhang, Junjie Gong, Wenguang Wei, Lela Susilawati, Zhichao Li

Institutions: Yangzhou University, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University Yogyakarta, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Language: English

Topic: Food composition and properties

Subfield: Nutrition and Dietetics

Field: Nursing

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Zero hunger

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,499