New Directions in Snack Food Production Equipment: Production Processes Trend Towards Healthier Options

In recent times, the 'stay-at-home economy' has continued to thrive, driving the expanding demand for information in the leisure snack market. The leisure food safety industry has a very large scale, encompassing sub-sectors such as nuts and roasted seeds, bread and pastries, puffed foods, candies, and braised products. With the improvement of urban residents' quality of life, the demand for healthy food has expanded, and the production processes of leisure foods have shown a trend toward healthiness, with related product processing techniques continuously being optimized and upgraded.

Our fast-food industry started relatively late, and we are now in a period of rapid development. According to statistics, the scale of China's fast-food industry exceeded one trillion US dollars in 2018, with an annual compound growth rate of nearly 12% from 2013 to 2018. According to the Market Environment Forecast Research Center, the snack food industry will continue to expand, reaching a scale of 1.25 trillion yuan by 2020, with a compound growth rate of over 13%.

In recent years, snack foods have been becoming the fourth meal in China beyond the three daily meals. While meeting the demands of entertainment and leisure culture, they must also continuously satisfy the health needs of rural residents and enterprises regarding students. To meet this market demand, the ingredient lists of snack foods are becoming simpler, with products trending toward freshness, low calories, low fat, and low sugar. At the same time, the production technology and processes of these products are also undergoing changes.

Eating puffed foods, traditional puffed foods such as potato chips, dried fruits, and vegetables are all fried. However, frying at high temperatures causes the food to produce higher levels of acrylamide, which is harmful to human health. In addition, the frying process significantly increases the oil content in the product, affecting digestive function and increasing the risk of obesity. It can be seen that under the trend of great health, the frying process clearly no longer meets consumer demands.

In this regard, the production process of extruded food using extrusion machinery is gradually being upgraded. For example, in the production of potato chips, the baking process has already been adopted. It is understood that baked potato chips are made from potato flour and some starch as raw materials, through steps such as mixing, lifting, spreading, rolling, shaping, baking, spraying, and cooling. The production equipment can form an assembly line with a high degree of automation. Baked potato chips contain less fat than fried potato chips and are healthier to eat. Extruded snack foods, after seasoning, are equally delicious and tasty.

Now, China's fast food industry is gradually shifting from blue ocean to red ocean competition. Industry insiders point out that with changes in trends such as snacks, health, and freshness, high quality is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, for companies in this industry, in order to gain a larger market share, it is necessary to seek breakthroughs through the upgrade process with a focus on 'health'. Food puffing machine manufacturers have been continuously upgrading and improving their products and production processes to better meet market demands.