Chickpea Research Paper

Development of chickpea snack using instant controlled pressure drop process

Sibel Yağcı* and Tuba Evci

* Corresponding author

The Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Engineering Faculty, Food Engineering Department, 70100 Karaman, TURKEY

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Abstract

In this study, development of snack foods from chickpea using instant controlled pressure drop process (DIC) was investigated. Chickpea samples containing different moisture contents (20-40%) were processed using DIC equipment at different pressures (3-5×102 kPa) and processing times (1-10 min), and then the effects of these conditions on the physical and sensory characteristics of the snack food were determined.

Increasing pressure and time usually improved physical and textural properties of chickpea snacks; however it caused losses of color in the product. Selected products from chickpea snacks got favorable scores from the semi-trained panelists from the point of general acceptability. DIC process was optimized for production of chickpea snack. The optimum conditions for the production of desirable chickpea snack were 40% of initial moisture content, 5 ×102 kPa pressure of processing vessel and 4 min of processing time.

Key words: chickpea, snack food, hydrothermal process, expansion ratio, textural property.

Introduction

The new trend for consumption of healthy, innovative and convenient snacks with exciting sensory and textural properties has become prevalent. Snack foods composed an important part of the diets of many people, especially children who need more protein per unit body weight than

In this study, full factorial design was used to investigate the effects of DIC variables on snack product quality with the process variables of chickpea moisture content, MC (20, 30 and 40% wet basis), pressure of the processing chamber, P (3,4 and 5×102 kPa) and processing time, T (1, 4, 7 and 10 min). The effect of vacuum pressure on the product properties was investigated using preliminary experiments and no effect of vacuum pressure was determined below the level of 3 kPa. Throughout all the experiments, vacuum pressure in the vacuum chamber was kept constant at 3 kPa and opening ratio of the valve was chosen as 100%. Prior to each run chickpea samples were conditioned as described above and replaced in the processing vessel. Then, the samples were treated in the processing vessel in which pre-vacuum was established to 6 kPa. Pre-vacuum steps provided well diffusion of saturated steam to the inner parts of the chickpea and also reduced heat transfer coefficient of the medium during DIC processing [7]. After the pre-vacuum steps, the samples were exposed to the saturated steam (3-5×102 kPa) for a given time (1-10 min) and the large diameter valve is suddenly opened to reduce steam pressure to the vacuum pressure in the processing vessel. Processed chickpea samples then were finally dried to about 6% of moisture