Food Processing Industry Essay

Food extrusion has become a very popular and important processing operation in the food processing industry. Food extrusion provides a great opportunity to create new and exciting food products. The main important purpose of extrusion is to increase the variety of foods in the diet by producing a range of products with different shapes, textures, colors and flavors from basic ingredients. Extrusion cooking is a high temperature short-time process, which reduces microbial contamination, and inactivates enzymes. The majority of the cereals available in India can be processed with extruder for snacks, pasta, rice analogue or breakfast cereals and combined with potentially hundreds of other ingredients to produce a vast range of processed cereal products

The leaves and seeds, which mature in pods is used to prepare extracts or powders for medicinal use. In today’s modern Egypt the fenugreek is still used as a supplement in wheat and maize flour for bread-making [Morcos et al., 1981]. In India, fenugreek is commonly consumed as a condiment and used medicinally as a lactation stimulant [Patil et al., 1997]. The seeds have been shown to lower blood glucose levels and partially restore the activities of key enzymes of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism close to normal values [Basch et al., 2003; Srinivasan, 2006]. The health beneficial effects of fenugreek are attributed to its chemical composition (3–5% moisture, 25–30% protein, 20–30% galactomannan, 20–25% insoluble fiber, 7–9% lipids, 5–7% saponins and 3–4% ash) that include mucilaginous fibers, lysine-rich protein, free amino acids, saponins, flavonoids, and volatile oils [Raju & Bird, 2006]. Flour fortified with 8–10% fenugreek fiber has been used to prepare bakery foods like pizza, bread, muffins, and cakes with acceptable sensory properties [Srinivasan,