Ability of a “very low-cost extruder” to produce instant infant flours at a small scale in Vietnam

Abstract

Extrusion cooking is a useful process for the production of instant infant flours, as it allows gelatinisation and partial dextrinisation of starch, as well as reduction of the activity of some antinutritional factors. But existing extrusion equipment is not suited to the context of developing countries as it requires considerable financial investment and the production capacity (minimum 300 kg/h) is too high. The aim of our study was to improve traditional extruders with low production capacity (about 30 kg/h) manufactured in Vietnam and to test their performance in the production of infant flours. Several blends made with rice, sesame and/or soybean have been extruded with the modified equipment that we name “very low-cost extruder”. In the case of blends containing soybean, starch gelatinisation was not complete, and decreased with an increase in the lipid content of the blend. The rate of trypsin inhibitor destruction evolved in a similar way. Adding water before extrusion, or extruding the blends twice was not effective in increasing the rates of starch gelatinisation or trypsin inhibitor destruction. However, the “very low-cost extruder” proved its ability to process the rice–sesame blend that had a lipid content of less than 6 g/100 g DM, and low initial water content [around 10%, wet basis (wb)]. In this case, extrusion led to total starch gelatinisation and the extent of starch dextrinisation, which was measured by comparing the viscosity of gruels prepared from crude and corresponding extruded blends, was sufficient to prepare gruels with substantially increased energy density. With the addition of roasted soybean flour, sugar, milk powder, vitamins and minerals, this blend could provide a nutritious instant flour usable as complementary food for infants and young children.