The effect of extrusion and drying on roller techniques concerning the rheological characteristics of rice-, corn-, sweet potato-, bean- and cassava root- and leaf- based composite flour

Abstract

Promoting food security in Latin-America and the Caribbean is directly related to agricultural products. The region faces a food crisis which has reduced large population groups' access to food. This work contributes to the study of obtaining precooked composite flour made from biofortified crops using protein, vitamin A and/or minerals. This study evaluated the effect of precooked flour's com-position and precooking on its solubility in water, water absorption capacity, consistency and viscosity; such flour was obtained by extrusion and drying on rollers. The composite flours were obtained from cassava roots, sweet potato tubers, corn, rice and bean grains and cassava leaves. Four composite flours were formulated taking four- to six-year-old children's daily nutrient requirements (protein, iron, zinc and beta-carotenes) as a basis. The extruder was operated at 90oC, 300 rpm screw rotation speed, 17.64 g/min feed flow, with 30% moisture mixture. The dryer rollers were operated at 4 rpm roller rotation speed, 90oC surface temperature and 1 mm separation between rollers. It was determined that flour dried on rollers led to more complete cooking and modified starch granule structure than precooking by extrusion, thereby producing flour having greater solubility in water, less water absorption, higher consistency and smaller viscosity, comparable to that of pattern flour.