Human food

Extrusion : Producing healthy and digestible food adapted to the different needs of the population

With the rapid growth of the world population, food is a major challenge: we must find solutions to meet the nutritional needs of all. Extrusion produces four main families of products with high nutritional value: Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), children’s food, snacks and breakfast cereals.

• Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)

It takes on average 4.9kg of vegetable protein to produce 1kg of animal protein. It is therefore necessary to produce vegetable proteins that can substituted animal proteins to ensure sustainable global food security. Extrusion cooking makes possible to transform vegetable proteins into a meat analogue called Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP). They have been created to have the same sensory characteristics as animal proteins: appearance, texture and mouthfeel. They can therefore replace all or part of the meat in  dishes: Bolognese sauce, nuggets, hamburger, sausages … but are also tasted directly as a flavored or seasoned pieces in many countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan or South Korea.

TVPs have many advantages:

• Are suitable for dietary restrictions of different religions, cultures, vegetarianism
• Cost reduction (vs. animal protein)
• Long conservation
• Easy to use

All vegetable proteins can be textured, but it is soybeans that are by far the most used in the manufacture of PVT. This is explained by the law of supply and demand : the reserves are plentiful and it is cheap.

• Food for children

Extrusion cooking makes ready-to-use powders which water must be added to instantly obtain rehydrated, fully gelatinized and cooked foods. The extruded mixture is sterile, so it is healthy and safe for children. However, care must be taken with the quality of the water or milk added and the storage conditions of the product once rehydrated.

These porridges play an important role in the food independence of developing countries, which is highly energy efficient and low-cost; it is a way to fight against child malnutrition. Extrusion makes it possible to use all the raw materials, so each country can adapt its recipes to locally available resources. In addition, SETREM adjusts its machines according to the energy availability and environmental constraints of the country.

• Snacks

The extruded shapes are very varied to meet all market demands. Snacks can be of different types: shaped dough made from potato or maize, extruded by direct expansion, coextruded…

Extrusion makes it possible to give different properties to snacks depending on the target consumer:

• Low calories containing resistant starch,
• Elaborate by its taste qualities for adults,
• Attractive shape and color for children.

• Breakfast cereals

Very present in North America and Central Europe, breakfast cereals represent a booming market: 10 to 20% growth in Italy, 20 to 25% in Eastern Europe as well as 15 to 20% in Latin America.

Manufacturers mainly target three groups: children, nutrition and health-conscious consumers and consumers looking for high-energy products. As with snacks, extrusion makes it possible to produce a whole range of products adapted to expectations of these different audiences.