Datong Machinery explores the development trends of grain puffed food with you.
The puffed food production line explores the development trends of grain puffed foods. Puffed foods have long been popular among consumers due to their good taste, unique and diverse flavors, portability, ease of consumption, and long shelf life.
1. Nutritious grain puffed foods.
Fat, carbohydrates, and protein are the main components of traditional puffed foods. From a compositional perspective, they belong to the category of high-fat, high-calorie, and low-fiber foods. In addition, traditional puffed snacks often contain high levels of monosodium glutamate, salt, and food additives. Long-term and excessive consumption can lead to high intake of fats and calories, insufficient nutrient intake, and an increased risk of obesity. As consumer awareness gradually increases, food nutrition has become a primary concern for shoppers. For puffed foods, the main challenge in the industry's development is to address product nutrition and change people's previous perception of them as "junk food."
2. Low-energy grain puffed food
From the perspective of ingredient composition, traditional puffed grain foods are high in fat, high in calories, and low in crude fiber. Long-term consumption can lead to excessive intake of fat and calories, insufficient nutrient intake, and easily cause obesity. Therefore, low-energy formulation is also an important development direction for snack foods.
In the processing of many puffed grain foods, there is a frying step, so their energy control is closely related to their oil content, which in turn depends on the absorption of oil during processing. Choosing raw materials with high solid content can shorten the frying time, and the raw materials can also be pre-dried or partially dried before frying to reduce frying time. To control oil absorption during frying, the frying temperature is also crucial. The raw materials should be fried at the highest possible temperature to shorten frying time and reduce oil absorption. In addition, the larger the surface area of the raw material, the more oil is absorbed. Therefore, round slices have a lower oil content.
3. High-temperature puffing technology
High-temperature puffing is achieved through the circulation of hot air, which vaporizes moisture and drives the overall expansion of the material. Currently, there are cereal puffed foods produced using high-temperature puffing technology.
Compared to snack foods made through frying puffing, high-temperature puffing has a lower oil content, resulting in products that are oil-free or low in oil, while still being crispy and delicious. It features fast heating, short processing time, high product quality, uniform heating, and a small equipment footprint. It can be foreseen that high-temperature puffing technology is a direction for the development of puffed food production technology.
Grains are a primary food resource for human survival, and the grain processing industry bears the responsibility of providing basic dietary sources and ensuring human health. Today, the global grain processing industry is moving towards utilizing modern high-tech to intensify the development of limited grain resources and increase the added value of grain products.
Currently, the application of puffing technology to produce puffed foods in China is still in its early stages. Therefore, research on puffing theory and technology should be actively conducted to continuously develop new products. It is believed that with the advancement of these efforts and the improvement of people's living standards, puffed foods that meet the needs of the public will develop rapidly.
