Fruitful Snacks

While the industry has responded to current demand with healthy products containing less fat and salt, manufacturers are also creating products with perceived positive nutritional benefits such as fruit-filled co-extruded snacks.

The food industry is seeing new formulation for co-extruded snacks replacing traditional savory fillings with whole grain cereals and fruit pastes, while providing nutrition and product variety at the same time.

Governments, regulatory bodies and interest groups have been publishing reports and studies that focus on the advantages or risks of specific foods and ingredients. Consumers are advised to adopt new approaches to health and diet. They are now demanding alternatives to conventional, savory snacks that are often criticized for their high fat and salt content.

While the food industry has responded with products containing less fat and salt, manufacturers are also creating products with perceived positive nutritional benefits such as fruit-filled co-extruded snacks. The shapes and textures that are currently used for savory snacks could be easily applied to the fruit-filled versions.

Highly concentrated, 100% fruit pastes from Taura Natural Ingredients are used at Baker Perkins for example. The low moisture activity of the pastes ensures the crisp outer shell of the snacks while using existing, conventional ways of packaging and distribution. Product shapes that have been successful in savory snack processing are also being successfully applied to fruit-filled products.

Innovative shape A new co-extrusion shape called the ‘credit card’ is a thin wafer that could contain fruit fillings. It could be created as ‘dipping’ products such as fruit-filled snacks for yogurt dips, peanut butter snacks for savory dips, and tomato-filled snacks for cheese dips.

The credit card shaped snack enables the filling to occupy a large area for an intense flavored product. The thin, flat, rectangular product could be created using grains such as corn, wheat and rice. Fruit-filled snacks could be processed with minimal capital outlay by using existing technologies for savory products.

A new co-extrusion shape called the ‘credit card’ is a thin wafer that could contain fruit fillings that could be created as ‘dipping’ products.

Major additions are being made to the range of shapes by coextrusion. Filled tubes for example could be cut into long pieces to create finger products that might rival conventional count lines. They could be filled with two flavors or products such as fruit and yogurt, and coated later.

Whole and multigrains
Using whole or multigrains as the outer shell in fruit-filled products adds to the healthy image of snacks. These grains are currently key ingredients in the processing and promotion of a new generation of low fat snacks. This is because, after processing, products with whole grains retain all three parts of the original grain – the germ, bran and endosperm – in their original proportions. The grains used include wheat, rye, corn, barley and rice.

According to the Whole Grains Council, people who consume whole grains as part of their diet have a lower risk of obesity and lower cholesterol levels. Those who consume three servings of whole grains a day have been shown to reduce their risk of heart disease by 25-36%, stroke by 37%, Type 2 diabetes by 21-27%, digestive system cancers by 21-43%, and hormone related cancers by 10-40%.

The co-extrusion process
Extrusion is a highly versatile process. Healthy, traditional, sweet and savory snacks could be made in a single system that also addresses issues such as taste, convenience, health and variety. A co-extrusion system could be added to most existing twin-screw extrusion lines. Co-extrusion enables cereal outers to contain fillings with contrasting textures and colors. Attractive shapes could be created and production www.bakerperkinsgroup.com is versatile as key parts could be changed over quickly. The essential elements of a Baker Perkins system for example are cutter crimper, feed system and die.

A cutter-crimper could imultaneously handle up to 12 lanes of product to produce filled tubes into individual pillows. The interchangeable cutting roll sets allow the pillows to be made in a wide range of shapes and sizes.

• Cutter crimper
A cutter-crimper could simultaneously handle up to 12 lanes of product to produce filled tubes into individual pillows. The interchangeable cutting roll sets allow the pillows to be made in a wide range of shapes and sizes. The cutter crimper could be retrofi tted into lines with most makes of extruders. The same unit could make shapessuch as credit cards and bars.

The cutter-crimper enables co-extruded pillow snacks to be created in attractive patterns such as hexagons, chevrons and waves. Common shapes such as squares could also be produced with improved outline defi nition as compared to older models. It is even possible to produce different shapes and flavors simultaneously for variety packs. These capabilities are available for fruit-filled and savory snacks.

It is possible to adjust crimp depth to allow sealed pillows to remain in continuous ribbons for downstream processing, if required. This also enables clean cuts of individual pieces for immediate packaging.

• Die design
Die design controls the snack’s shape, expansion and shell structure, and processes products of different formulations and shapes from an extruder. New die technology has created a range of products with distinctive surface textures. These snacks could feature a number of individual strands with a sweet or savory center. They could also be cut to produce conventional bite-size snacks or bars.

• Feed system
The feed system provides accurate metering of fillings for snacks handled on the cutter crimper. It features one pump per product stream, allowing each pump to be adjusted independently for precise weight control.

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