DESARROLLO DE BOTANAS EXTRUDIDA LISTA PARA COMER USANDOMEZCLAS DE HARINAS DE SEMILLA DE CALABAZA (Cucurbita pepo) Y MA ́IZNIXTAMALIZADO (Zea mays)

Abstract

Extruded ready-to-eat snacks were prepared from flour blends made with pumpkin seed (PSF) and nixtamalized maize (NMF) using a single-screw extruder with a compression screw ratio of 3:1. A central composite rotatable design was used to investigate the effects of the PSF proportion in formulations (0 - 30 g/100 g), feed moisture content (14 - 20 g/100 g) and extrusion temperatures (120 - 180 °C) on the physical properties like expansion index (EI), bulk density (BD), water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), hardness (H), pH and total color difference (∆E). The results indicated that EI, BD and ∆E were significantly affected by increasing the proportion of PSF and BD, whereas increasing ∆E resulted in an opposite effect on EI (P <0.05). Temperature significantly negatively affected (P <0.05) EI and H, while increased moisture content only caused a significant increase (P <0.05) in WAI. Optimal conditions were at an extrusion temperature of 120 °C, feed moisture content of 20 g/100 g and PSF content of 10.36 g/100 g and protein content =11.74 g/100 g. The ready-to-eat snack developed in this research could be considered as a functional food with nutritional and health benefits.