ON THE ISSUE OF THERMAL VACUUM EXTRUSION MULTICOMPONENT RAW MATERIALS OF PLANT ORIGIN

Abstract

The work provides information on the possibility of obtaining an extrudate of a multicomponent mixture of plant raw materials with a high content of one of the significant macronutrients in each of the processed ingredients. In the experiment, a mixture of vegetable beans, wheat grain and milk thistle seeds at various ratios was subjected to thermal vacuum extrusion. When choosing rational parameters for the extrusion process, we were guided by information about the properties of the macronutrient, the concentration of which in the processed food system was the highest, and then they were adjusted taking into account the minimum acceptable destruction of the remaining significant components of the raw material. From this point of view, thermal vacuum extrusion in the experiment was carried out at high moisture content, moderate temperature and milder deformation conditions of the processed raw materials. A sharp decrease in pressure in the vacuum chamber of the machine when the extrudate entered there led to an additional effect of its dehydration, which made it possible to obtain a product with a moisture content of 8-10%. At the same time, the mechanism of thermal vacuum action on the extrudate during its dehydration ensures partial replacement of the hard thermal component of the process with its softer analogue - the mechanical one. Ultimately, this will reduce the energy intensity of the extrusion process and increase the safety of thermolabile ingredients of the processed raw materials.