12 Snack Foods and Breakfast Cereals

Shaping
INTRODUCTION
Aeration
processes
Page 445 Page 451 SNACK FOODS

The definition of 'snack foods', which we shall

Extrusion Other follow in this chapter, is much the same as that
processes used by the grocery trade or included in marketing
Page 446 Page 452
surveys. The American market research company
Frost and Sullivan Inc. suggest the following list:
Conventional snacks:
Potato chips (UK 'crisps')
Corn flakes and other forms of corn
Savoury/extruded products
Extruded Nuts Nuts
products
Page 457 Page 460 Salted/savoury crackers
Newer snacks:
Instant hot pot snacks and cup soups
Cereal bars/mixes
Puffed
products Meat snacks
Page 458 Fish snacks
Novel - ethnic and filled
Countline confectionery items
Flaked, rolled, Other Dairy beverages (milk, yoghurt, fermented
granulated products milks)
products Page 459
Sweet baked items including cookies.

Page 454
Many other foods, however, are typically eaten as
snacks in the other sense in which the word is
commonly used. This meaning is typically defined
in dictionaries as 'a hasty, casual or very light
meal'. This would include the traditional mid-
morning, mid-afternoon or work-break snack, or
the growing multi-snack meals that form the basis
Pacakaging of a 'grazing' lifestyle in which three main meals a
Page 468 day can be replaced by up to seven or eight
snacks taken largely 'on the hoof.
No hard and fast rules can be laid down for
what is and what is not a snack food. Where a
particular product is frequently used as a snack
food but is directly derived from a normal, non-
Quality aspects snack foodstuff, then it will be given only brief
Page 469
mention in this chapter. Further details can be
found in the appropriate chapter relevant to that
particular type of food. On the other hand, the
many current snack foods which have little or no
'main meal' relevance are dealt with in this
chapter.
BREAKFAST FOODS
In the past, when hard manual labour was the lot
of most people in the West, the large breakfast
gained in popularity. In many countries, it became
more or less standardized, for those who could
afford it, as a combination of bacon, eggs (usually
scrambled or fried), mushrooms, tomatoes,
kidneys, fried bread and a few other odds and
ends. This was frequently preceded by porridge,
and followed by buttered toast and marmalade or
other confiture - 'Le petit dejeuner Anglais'. This
can still be encountered in many hotels, but has
been substantially replaced, both in home and
hotel, by a much lighter breakfast consisting basi-
cally of some form of cereal, plus frequently fruit
(dried, cooked or au-naturel) or fruit juice, and
tea or coffee.
Breakfast cereals are produced either from indi-
vidual varieties of grain or from mixtures thereof;
wheat, oats, maize (corn), rye, rice and occasion-
ally, barley, are all employed for this purpose. A
range of manufacturing techniques are employed
to produce a wide variety of products specifically
designed to appeal to all ages and, in many
cases, ready to be served at the table directly
from the package. A large proportion of these
breakfast cereal foods will be dealt with in this
chapter; others are referred to elsewhere in this
book.
MANUFACTUREVG TECHNOLOGIES
INTRODUCTION
It can fairly be said that many of the recent major
advances in food processing technology have
largely emanated from the requirements of the
rapidly expanding snack and breakfast foods
sectors. The simple basic technologies, referred to
in the text of this chapter, are not addressed sepa-
rately here in any detail. However, the more
complex manufacturing techniques, which are
essential elements in the conversion of the various
raw materials and their mixtures into the desired
end products are discussed in some depth. For
present purposes, these technologies, and their
resulting products, have been classified as follows:
shaping processes, extrusion processes, aeration
processes and other miscellaneous processes.
SHAPING PROCESSES
Included in this section are descriptions of rolling,
flaking and granulating processes. In certain cases,
flaking and rolling can be used interchangeably to
describe the same operation, as for example, in the
flaking or flattening by means of co-rotating rolls
of partially precooked cereal grains. In contrast,
the terms cannot be interchanged in the case of
nuts. Here, rolling is not normally employed;
flaking, on the other hand, involves a slicing
operation as, for example, in the case of flaked
almonds.
Granulation is a very different process, normally
based on a form of deliberate partial comminution
of otherwise large pieces of the intermediate or fin-
ished product. A typical example occurs in the
manufacture of 'Grape Nuts', a breakfast cereal
which, incidentally, is based neither on grapes nor
on nuts.
Flaking (rolling) of cereals
Precooked cereal grains are flaked, either in whole
or in part, to achieve the required final dimensions
of the finished product. Thickness is normally of
particular importance. The principles of this
process are the same for all cereals, though the
detail is necessarily different. These differences are
mentioned later under PRODUCTS.
The grain, or grain pieces, usually corn, wheat,
oats (groats), barley (pearled) and rice, are first
steamed and, with the exception of oats, usually
fully cooked, with a concurrent rise in their
moisture content of up to 20%. At the same time
other ingredients are added if desired - sugar,
salt, malt extract, honey, and so on and the tem-
perature of the cook (99-1040C) leads to the
inactivation of any enzymes which are still
present in the grains. It may be necessary to hold
the cooked grains for a length of time for condi-
tioning and they may be also be partially dried
as well. The hot, moist and now well plasticized
grains are passed individually between a pair of
large heavy steel rolls running at 250-400 rpm,
heated to a specific temperature, and with a
closely controlled gap between them to ensure
uniformity of the eventual flake thickness. The
flakes are then dried to an appropriate moisture
content.
A similar process may be used to flake extru-
dates produced from single or mixed flours or
semolinas in a cooker extruder (see below under
EXTRUSION PROCESSES) or pelletizer. The pieces
must, of course, be appropriately conditioned
before rolling and then are treated in exactly the
same manner as rolled whole cereal grains.
Further processing of the flakes may entail:
(i) Sugaring - accomplished by a spray of sugar
plus honey or another 'non-sticky when dry'
component with the sugar,
(ii) Toasting in a very hot oven to cause some
blistering (a form of aeration), colouring and
some flavouring,
(iii) Addition of flavours by incorporation in
sprays or by dusting the flakes
Rolling of cereals has a subdivision, which has
been used for many years in the production of
shreds and which still has many advantages over
the use of the extruder for this purpose. Wheat is
the most usual cereal to be shredded and Shredded
Wheat has been a popular breakfast item for a
long while. It is manufactured by a process with a
stage that is unique in breakfast cereal manufac-
ture.
Washed, whole wheat is boiled in salted water
for as long as is necessary to cook the contained
starch thoroughly and make it fully dextrinized.
At this time, the drained grains will have nearly
doubled their weight. They are then allowed to
cool and achieve (i) a uniformity of moisture
content and (ii) a degree of starch retrogradation
(i.e. of crystallization) over a lengthy period of up
to a day. The wheat is then fed continuously to
pairs of counterrotating rolls, one of which is
grooved and the other is not. There is no clear-
ance between the rolls and the only way that the
wheat can pass between the rollers is through the
grooves. 'Doctor' combs are positioned to remove
the shreds so formed.
A series of pairs of such rolls feed their
shreds on top of each other, any necessary fla-
vouring is added and the mass of shreds is con-
veyed on a belt where it is cut by deliberately
blunted knives which compress and meld the
sides and ends of each piece, which can be of
any desired size. These now go to a hot oven
(about 2550C), where they first expand somewhat
before setting and drying, and are finally
coloured (browned) at the end of the baking
process, which is normally carried out in a
typical travelling biscuit oven. The final moisture
content of the product is approximately 4%.
The flours or semolinas of other cereals may
also be used to produce shredded products pro-
vided that appropriate modifications are made to
the standard wheat process to provide fully
acceptable final products.
The term 'flaking', as in 'corn flakes', has been
used synonymously so far with the word 'rolling'.
In fact it is not, and another form of flaking is
possible and is used in a few products.
Firmly structured food materials, e.g. nuts and
some fruits and vegetables 'au naturel', and some
cooked and solid, formed products, may be thinly
sliced into flakes on what might be termed the
'spokeshave' principle. This employs a very sharp
blade of some kind, set at a fixed spacing to give
the desired flake thickness. Such methods of
flaking usually require specialized manufacturing
equipment because of the great variability in the
size, shape and nature of the material to be flaked.
Almond flakes are an example of product pro-
duced by this technique.
Granulating processes
Within the breakfast foods area, there is nowadays
a frequent need for the production of granules
(e.g. as in 'Grape Nuts'). There are two basic
methods of granulating which can be used, as
appropriate.
The first method uses the 'pharmaceutical' style
of granulator, or the outlet die of a cooker-
extruder. A fairly stiff dough of the final cooked
product is forced through a sieve having the neces-
sary aperture sizes and breaks off (or is broken or
cut off) on release, falls onto a travelling oven belt
and is then dried and/or toasted and brought to
the necessary final crisp state. The original dough
may or may not be aerated.
In the second method final product dough may
be sheeted with appropriate smooth rolls and the
sheets (usually around 10 mm thick) are baked to
a moisture content which makes them readily
breakable, but not overly. This is to avoid a wide
range of size fragments and the generation of
excess fines. The baked sheets are then passed
between suitably spaced ribbed steel rollers - or
alternatively between spiked rolls - to produce the
necessary granules.
There are many variants of these basic methods
to serve special needs. Aggregates, which may be
mixed in colour and composition, can be produced
by loosely gumming particulates together with
dextrin, or another vegetable gum, drying them
and breaking them up into appropriately sized
pieces.
EXTRUSION PROCESSES
Extrusion technology has grown considerably
since the 1950s. The principal developments that
have taken place include:
(i) The generation, application and control of
temperature during the total extrusion
process;
(ii) Arising from (i), the possibility of cooking the
product in various ways (high temperature,
short time or lower temperature, longer time)
during the process;
(iii) The possibility of 'puffing' or aerating the
product by rapid evolution of steam at the
point of extrusion at a temperature above
10O0C;
(iv) The possibility of rapid, though usually only
partial, drying of product by reason of (iii),
(v) Arising from (i), effective microbiological
control of the finished product and destruc-
tion of unwanted enzyme activity;
(vi) The possibility of producing fibres as well as
the enormous variety of puffed or unpuffed
pasta shapes and sizes. This enables particular
textures such as meat simulants to be pro-
duced, mainly through the use of plasticized
proteins as extrudates. 'Baco-bits', which
simulate cold, crisp fried bacon, is a typical
example of such an extruded product.
These changes could not have taken place without
major developments in extruder technology, which
have for the most part been as follows:
(i) A change of layout from the original S-
shaped format to a straight-through format.
This permits better access to and control of
all sections of the extruder.
(ii) The development of a wide range of screws or
worms having different pitches, with deeper
or shallower flights and operating cylinders
which may be shallow- or deeply grooved or
ungrooved, and of large or small diameter.
This results in wide variability in the shear
forces produced and the associated energy
input.
(iii) The use of jacketed barrels for steam- or hot-
water heating, or cold-water or refrigerant
cooling. Some designs of extruder also feature
hollow screw shafts through which steam can
be passed, or electric heating. The use of water
or steam injection into the food at various
stages of the mixing and extrusion processes is
also used to control the temperature.
The basic extruder design, together with the
speed of rotation of the screw, the composi-
tion and temperature of the mix, and the die
design will all dictate the mechanical energy
input to the mix. This is partially converted
into heat, which may then have to be
removed or augmented by the means
described above.
(iv) The introduction of twin-screw, twin-cylinder
designs.
Nowadays, the food extruder has achieved such
a high level of sophistication that it is probably
unrivalled in its range of capabilities by any other
food-industry process. The things which can nor-
mally be accomplished by most modern extrusion
plants include:
(i) Metering, mixing and holding the ingredients
in a manner appropriate to the desired
product.
(ii) Heating, and cooling if necessary, the contents
of the extruder barrel. This can be accom-
plished by absorbing the energy generated in
the course of mixing, melding and otherwise
manipulating the dough, and by the further
addition or removal of heat as required. This
process will determine the degree to which the
starch present is gelatinized.
(iii) Venting the extruder barrel, with or without
vacuum, to control and standardize behaviour
and quality of the product on final extrusion.
Increasing sophistication in extruders demands
increasing sophistication in their feedstocks. All
the complex control systems of such extruders can
be rendered ineffectual unless the feedstock is stan-
dardized, this standardization not only encom-
passing the proportional mix of items each with
its own quite precise specification, but also limita-
tions on the overall analysis and physical proper-
ties of the final mix including of course, particle
size(s).
The reasons for this necessity are fourfold:
(i) The particle size of the ingredients must be
such as to allow the appropriate flow of mix
through the extruder - too small an average
particle size (e.g. flour) can cause jamming,
whilst too large a size may cause too great a
speed of flow and resultant inadequate pro-
cessing in some areas.
(ii) Some precooking of one or more ingredients
may lead to premature plasticizing of the mix
and problems arising therefrom.
(iii) In the case of expansion extrusion particu-
larly, an excess of fat can abort the exercise:
3% of fat or oil is the usual top limit here
and this limitation also obtains in many non-
expansion extrusion situations.
(iv) The overall efficiency (in terms of throughput
and energy usage) of the extrusion process
can frequently be improved by the addition of
GMS (glyceryl monostearate) to the mix. The
optimal quantity (frequently of the order of
1.5%) has to be determined experimentally
for each specific mix).
Types of extruder
Piston or pump extruders
The simplest form of extrusion is exemplified by
the syringe and the spinneret. Here liquids, viscous
or otherwise, are extruded through a narrow
orifice by pressure, either from a piston in a
cylinder or from a pump. In both cases the pres-
sure employed is quite low and no significant
amount of work of any kind is applied. The com-
position or formulation of the liquid has been
achieved before it enters the cylinder of the
extruder and is unchanged during the operation.
The extrusion of foods started, and still con-
tinues, in the context of the butcher's shop. Pre-
minced, spiced and generally formulated sausage-
meat paste is caused by a piston to extrude
through a nozzle located in the end of a cylinder.
This carries a circlet of prepared tubular sausage
skin, so that the minced meat, as it extrudes, is
provided with appropriate edible containment.
Modern large scale sausage making is carried out
on the same principle but uses a straightforward
continuous screw extruder, which is usually allied
with a manufactured rather than a natural skin.
Miniature, cocktail or snack sausages, usually
about 4 cm long, are made by the same method.
Collet extruder
The Collet extruder was designed in the 1940s for
(and now is really only useful for) processing
maize grits. It is capable of producing a modest
range of variously shaped expanded cooked
snacks from low moisture feedstocks. It is a high
shear, high pressure, self-heating and self-cooking
extruder; the high shear generates a lot of heat in
a short length of time. Inlet moisture content is
typically 11% (range 9-17%); outlet moisture
content 5%; temperature of mix immediately
before extrusion 175-18O0C; about 0.10% of the
input energy to the screw drive motor is converted
into heat absorbed by the product.
The products require little drying after extrusion
and can readily be sprayed with sugar syrup or
other flavouring additives and toasted if desired
before consumption.
Pasta press
Most forms of extrusion employed in the prepara-
tion of snack foods stem from the pasta press (or
extruder) which is itself also used in the manufac-
ture of the first stages of some modern snack
foods.
The feed materials for ordinary pasta (spaghetti,
macaroni, tagliatelle, etc.) are very simple - wheat
semolina and water. The wheat used in the manu-
facture of good quality pasta is almost exclusively
durum or amber durum, the semolina from which
eventually gives a product that has a translucent
appearance. If significant quantities of other wheat
semolinas are used the appearance and eating
quality of the product are inferior; the presence of
non-durum semolina must be declared on the
product label.
The pasta press is a single-screw extruder with
three major zones: (i) mixing and conditioning, (ii)
plasticizing and (iii) extrusion. In early pasta man-
ufacturing machines these three zones were posi-
tioned for compactness one above the other,
giving an inverted S flow. Modern pasta presses
are designed on a straight-through format.
(i) The first zone receives a metered supply of
the durum semolina and water with an
overall moisture content of about 22%. This
mixture is propelled along a trough by
broken screw flights which also act as beaters
or mixers.
(ii) The semolina, now appropriately hydrated,
drops into the entry of the closed cylinder
plasticizer, which incorporates a propelling
screw furnished with appropriate flights and
walls to ensure adequate shear and moulding.
As a result, the semolina reaches the final
pre-extrusion state as a uniform, relatively
high viscosity plastic dough. The moisture
content remains about 22%; about 0.02% of
the input energy to the screw drive motor is
converted into heat absorbed by the product.
Most pasta machines have cold-water cooling
jackets to remove the heat generated by this
intensive work. Before the final stage, the
extruder is vented, frequently with a vacuum
outlet, to ensure the absence of air bubbles in
the dough, which would interfere with the
translucency of the final product and its
surface integrity.
(ii) The final stage is a very low shear building up
of pressure in the cylinder at the end of which
are the nozzles constituting the die from
which the extrudate appears. The shape of the
nozzles governs the shape of the finished
pasta, from simple rods of spaghetti, strips of
tagliatelli or tubes of macaroni to the more or
less complicated shapes of various short-cut
pastas. The temperature of the paste at this
stage is about 550C, well below the boiling
point of water; there is therefore no puffing
effect as the pressure is brought down to
atmospheric.
The paste is then cut off to an appropriate length.
Drying completes the manufacturing operation.
(Other aspects of pasta manufacture are dealt with
in Chapter 5.) LIVEBIN

High pressure shaper SCREW

FEEDER
This is a single screw machine used for snack
foods which are cooked with or without expansion
DOUBLE CONDITIONING
after leaving the extruder. Inlet moisture content VACUUM
CYLDfDER

25%; outlet moisture content 25%; temperature of

product immediately before extrusion 9O0C; 0.03%
of the input energy to the extruder motor is con- VENTED
HEAD
verted to heat absorbed by the product. The pro-
ducts may be part dried and may be expanded in EXTRUDER
DIE
a fryer or an expansion chamber.

Low shear cooker-extruder

This is used mainly for making semi-moist pet
foods but could also be used for similar inter-
mediate moisture human foods. The high moisture
content of such products limits the amount of
energy that can be derived from the screw opera-
tion and this necessitates jacket heating. Inlet
moisture content 28%; outlet moisture content
25%; temperature of the mix immediately before
extrusion 12O0C; 0.02% of the input energy to the
extruder drive motor is converted into heat in the
product.
High shear cooker-extruder
This is the most modern development and is extre-
mely versatile. High shear cooker-extruders can
produce products of widely varying size, shape,
colour, degree of cooking, and so on, in either solid
Figure 12.1 Cutaway view of twin-screw extruder (from
Booth, 1990).
or expanded (aerated) form. Products from a twin-
cylinder machine may be of two colours and fla-
vours, in sandwich form, or of filled round bar
shape. The expanded product may be further dried,
and can be fat- and flavour-sprayed and dusted.
Among the snack foods made possible by this
type of extruder are the so-called flat breads, the
expanded-wall tubes or rods of cooked breakfast
cereals and snacks, and expansion-extruded pro-
ducts of the type resembling wafer biscuits. Half
products for further processing into snack foods
may also be produced.
Figures 12.1-12.4 depict typical exterior and

FEED KNEADING COOKING VENT FORMING

ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE

FEED KNEADING CUT FLIGHT CONE

SCREWS SCREWS SCREWS SCREWS

SHEARLOCKS

Figure 12.2 Extruder components (from Booth, 1990).

 FEED KNEADING FINAL COOKING
ZONE ZONE ZONE
(Raw Material and (Dough Like Mass) i!
Surface Moisture) r£5SffSSSr

DIRECTION OF FLOW

FEEDING KNEADING FINAL

SCREW SCREW COOKING SCREW

Figure 12.3 Extruder configuration (from Booth, 1990).

Figure 12.4 Die types: (a) single die, (b) double die, (c) triple die, (d) single die with spacer (from Booth, 1990).

interior layouts of modern extruders. Preliminary
mixing and any necessary preconditioning of the
feedstocks are not shown: more exhaustive details
may be found in the references listed under
Further Reading at the end of this chapter.
The machines are normally of twin-screw
design. There is frequently the possibility of inter-
changing parts, particularly screws, cylinders and
dies of different geometry. This enables a wide
range of raw materials to be processed, with a
wide range of moisture contents. Typical oper-
ating conditions are: inlet moisture content 15%;
outlet moisture content 8%; temperature of
product immediately before extrusion 12O0C;
0.11% of the input energy to the extruder drive
motor is converted to heat absorbed by the
product.
Pre-die temperatures are considerably in excess
of 10O0C5 so the extrudate is normally therefore
fully cooked and any starch present is gelati-
nized. The pre-die temperatures may be varied
almost at will and the amounts of expansion
and moisture flash-off can be controlled through
the effective use of change parts and modern
control systems.
AERATION PROCESSES
Aeration consists of changing a non-porous liquid,
plastic or solid food into a porous spongy-textured
or honeycomb one. The vacuoles may range in
size from the microscopic to the relatively large,
such as those found in bread, and may be filled
with air, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or occasionally
other gases such as nitrous oxide. Aeration can be
reversed in some cases by liquid absorption (e.g.
trifle).
The means by which aeration is accomplished
are quite varied, as is necessary to cope with indi-
vidual materials and circumstances. They may,
however, be classified into various categories such
as expansion extrusion; gas injection (e.g. air into
ice-cream mix); flash frying of moist material;
rapid high temperature baking; the use of yeast
fermentation; the use of vacuum together usually
with some heat and dehydration; the use of the
very hot plate; whipping of slurries, batters and
creams; the use of baking powder and other
raising agents. The efficacy of the method used
depends on the variable characteristics of the
material it is desired to aerate. These characteris-
tics include surface tension, fat content and disper-
sion, whether starch is present and if so, in what
form, and the presence of gums, pentosans, albu-
mens and similar natural or synthetic materials.
Many of the foods we eat are aerated - most
of these would be very much less attractive to
the palate if they were not - and the marketing
advantages of an expanded product are, or
should be, obvious for the most part. Quite a
large proportion of snack and breakfast foods
are aerated to a greater or lesser degree though
the expanded state is frequently unrecognized by
the consumer. For example, the fact that ice-
cream is normally half product and half air is
not usually appreciated but it has several advan-
tages to the consumer as well as to the producer.
Aeration can provide better eating qualities, such
as lightness and crispness, greater bulk, a greater
surface area in relation to weight and better facil-
ities for flavouring.
The summarize, the methods currently used are
as follows:
(i) Fermentation, in which aeration is provided
by yeast growth and the evolution of CO2
(ii) The use of raising agents, comprising baking
powders and ammonium bicarbonate or
'stuff, which also depend on CO2 produc-
tion
(iii) 'Puffing', in which product containing super-
heated moisture is subjected to a sudden
release of pressure. This is analogous in
many ways to (iv) but is normally only
applicable to whole cereal grains
(iv) Expansion extrusion, by which superheated
product is caused to emerge under pressure
from a die and the moisture in it immedi-
ately vaporizes
(v) Frying in very hot fat
(vi) Whipping to entrap air
(vii) Vacuum-oven drying
(viii) Air injection (e.g. into ice-creams) or CO2
injection (Oakes bread process)
(ix) Nitrous oxide (concurrently used as a pro-
pellant)
(x) Special cases - hot plate or microwave oven
to cook and expand cereal grains.
The relatively new processes of ohmic heating and
ultra-high pressure treatment may in due course
also offer opportunity for aeration.
The essence of satisfactory aeration is that the
product should retain the cellular structure it
gains, and this depends on the structural qualities
of the ingredients in the food, the way in which
they have been affected by the process overall, and
the presence or absence of modifying ingredients
such as oil or fat. The 'fixing' of the aeration is all
important.
All these methods have to be regarded as
'horses for courses' - the formulation or required
product frequently narrows choice to one or, at
most, two alternatives. This arises because of two
major factors
(i) the presence of too much fat in the product
may exclude many potential alternatives, and
(ii) the degree of cooking of the product, and
where and how it happens, is frequently a
deciding factor. In this context, it should be
mentioned in passing that the use of cold
extrusion in the case of a product which
cannot be expansion extruded can frequently
be employed as a prelude to aeration by
another method.
Aids to aeration, such as appropriate additives
to, or the pretreatment of, formulations are widely
used. Additives such as guar, carob or xanthan
gums are frequently effective, as are the addition
of ingredients rich in pentosans, and changes to
the nature of the starch included in the formula-
tion.
OTHER PROCESSES
Baking and drying
The oven is one of the most ancient of all food
manufacturing facilities. However, the technology
has developed considerably over the years. It was
originally used for the production of bread, the
cooking of meats and for the drying and/or
smoking of foods. It now it has many other spe-
cialized functions, which include expansion, col-
ouring, flavour development, sterilizing, enzyme
destruction and conditioning, to mention but a
few. These varied functions have made necessary
the development of multifunctional equipment.
Many of these types of oven are concerned with
the manufacture of snack foods and breakfast
foods; their general features are described briefly
below.
(i) The heating of ovens is almost always carried
out using gas or oil as fuel. Special radiant
heat generators and so-called microwave units
are also occasionally employed. By appro-
priate use of these techniques including com-
binations thereof and of proper control
methods, various temperature zones can be
created and the requisite heating of the
product from without and within may be
accomplished. So temperatures can be
arranged for immediate rapid heating or an
initial slow bake, and for such requirements
as toasting, browning or drying. Steam may
also be injected into the oven to reduce
moisture loss.
(ii) Ovens can be static; the brick oven is still
used for some purposes. However, most are
usually mechanized and are loaded and
unloaded by a mechanically driven steel belt
which can have a longitudinal or spiral path.
If the product is loaded on trays, then a
tower oven with mechanical uplift and
descent may be used.
(iii) The vacuum oven, usually used for low tem-
perature dehydration, is a special case but is
now engineered so as to be available for con-
tinuous throughput operation.
(iv) The drying oven, usually heated by forced air
circulation, is available in many forms and is
widely used in breakfast and snack food pro-
duction.
These types of oven are referred to later in rela-
tion to specific kinds of product.
Frying
Two forms of frying are possible: (i) that carried
out in a pan with a very shallow layer of fat,
where the material being fried is frequently turned
over so that the whole of its surface is eventually
heated by the hot fat as well as by conduction
within itself; and (ii) total immersion or deep
frying, where the material either floats in or is
completely covered by the fat. The 'shallow layer'
method of frying is only very infrequently used in
food production on the large scale and so only
frying by immersion will be considered here. A
subdivision of deep frying is termed 'flash frying'.
This is widely used in snack food production
when a very short term, high temperature cook is
needed.
Frying has a number of functions, which are by
no means, all related to cooking in a medium in
which heat transfer is much more rapid than in an
oven. The things which are customarily expected
to be achieved include:
(i) Total cooking or final cooking of snack or
breakfast food items to the eventual condition
required.
(ii) Reduction of moisture content and also of
any excess fat content of the material in ques-
tion (e.g. as in pork scratchings).
(iii) Expansion of moisture-containing materials
and the 'fixing' of the expansion by protein
denaturation, drying of contained dextrinized
starch, etc.
(iv) 'Crisping' and colouring the product as neces-
sary (e.g. potato crisps).
(v) Overall improvement in rigidity, strength and
mouthfeel of the product.
The quality of the oil used for frying is dealt
with in Chapter 8 but it is pertinent to mention
here that the flash, fire and smoke points need to
be taken into account in view of the necessary
temperatures required. Also, the stability of the oil
and its nutritional qualities (preferably high in
monounsaturates) have to be considered because,
inevitably, small amounts of residual fat are
usually left on the product. This can frequently be
minimized by centrifugation or otherwise, but is
usually sufficient to allow flavouring mixes or
powders in sufficient quantity to adhere firmly to
the product after frying. The relatively low bulk
density and large surface area of many products
help in this matter. Oils used for frying frequently
contain antioxidant stabilizers, both for the sake
of maximizing the shelf life of the final product
and also extending the working life of the frying
oil itself.
Coating
Many snack foods and breakfast foods are coated
with a variety of materials, such as sugar, honey,
natural or synthetic flavour concentrates, cheese
powder, batters and savoury mix powders, in
order to make them attractive on the palate and
give them an individuality. For example, cereal
flakes and expanded cereals may be sprayed with
sugar solution and dried off after each application.
Up to 50% of the final product may be sugar.
Methods used for coating are very varied. Some
examples are as follows:
(i) The coating pan, as used for pharmaceutical
tablets and products such as almonds, where
a pear-shaped open pan angled at about 45%
is slowly revolved. This results in its contents
being tumbled, while sprays of, for example,
sugar solution are applied alternately with jets
of hot or warm drying air until the desired
level of application is reached. Such coatings
may be 'polished' by a final dusting of icing
sugar, talc or similar powder.
(ii) The products travel on a belt which is
vibrated at intervals and dusted with appro-
priate powders; some of the powder adheres
and the rest is recirculated. The product needs
to be somewhat adhesive for this method to
be effective.
(iii) The products may be dipped into or sprayed
with a batter, which is then converted into a
'shell' coating by heat and drying. The batter
may be smooth cream or particulate in nature
and may, in some cases, be aerated itself.
(iv) Products such as a fruit and/or cereal bar or
biscuit, may be coated in an 'enrober',
through which it is usually carried on a wire
mesh belt and deluged from above and below
with tempered liquid chocolate or a substi-
tute. The excess drains off and the product
then enters a cooling tunnel where the couver-
ture sets.
(v) A 'coated' product can be produced in a
twin-screw extrusion operation. A central
main core of product is surrounded by an
annular extruded 'jacket' which may be of
very different composition and style from the
core. The Japanese-made Rheon machine,
based on a similar approach, will produce
multicoated products such as analogues of
Scotch eggs.
(vi) Glazing, or the coating of ice on frozen snack
products (e.g. prawns) resulting from the
application of a cold water spray has the
function of preventing dehydration and
avoiding toughening and a general deteriora-
tion of appearance and mouthfeel.
Mixing
This is a process which is often incorporated
within another process as a necessary ancillary
(e.g. as in extrusion) but is also recognized as a
process in its own right. When employed in this
context, it may also incorporate functions other
than mixing, such as aeration, emulsification,
dough formation and comminution. Consequently,
a wide range of mixing equipment has been devel-
oped and is available commercially. Some of the
principal 'mixing' functions are as described
below.
Mixing of solids
Particle size defines the necessary style of mixer -
for powders, the ribbon mixer in a trough is one
possibility, as is a sealed drum with baffles,
rotating on the axis of the drum or end-over-end.
Such machines are also suitable for mixing mate-
rials of particle size averaging that of granulated
sugar. For mixing solids of disparate but larger
size (e.g. muesli ingredients) a rotating twin
conical 'V type of mixer is suitable.
Mixing of solids and liquids
Here the required state of the mixture defines the
type of plant to be used. For the production of
suspensions or solutions, the high speed propeller
agitator within an open tank may be adequate. If
some degree of comminution is necessary, or lump
formation is a problem, then the Silverson type of
mixer is needed. Aeration is a feature of some
mixers (e.g. in the Chorleywood bread process). If
the final product is a dough, the sort of mixer
required becomes a more massive Z-blade or
similar machine, or the type of integral dough-
forming mixer incorporated into extruders.
Mixing of non-miscible liquids
Here the aim, aided by stabilizers, is to produce
an emulsion or cream from, for example, an oil-
water mixture. A high speed propellant mixing
screw may be adequate here, otherwise a homoge-
nizer may be necessary.

Mixing ofmiscible liquids
This hardly needs mention, merely stirring with
paddles or a recirculating pump is usually ade-
quate so long as sufficient time is taken, particu-
larly when the liquids have different specific
gravities.
Masa production
A wide range of snacks manufactured and used in
USA, Mexico, Central America, and also now in
the UK, require a special form of maize as a
starting point - masa flour or masa meal. Masa is
produced by treating whole grains of maize with
lye (lime, caustic soda or KOH) which renders the
pericarp easily removable. The temperature of the
treatment also partially cooks the maize. Subse-
quently, the alkali is washed out of the grain, the
pericarp removed and the masa can then be used
immediately for tortilla or taco manufacture.
However, it is mainly dried and ground to provide
masa flour. Among other uses, this can be used as
a basis for making corn flakes.
Sieving
The mouthfeel of products markedly affects their
acceptability. It is therefore necessary to control
the perceived granularity, roughness or whatever
criterion may be applied to measure this factor.
To standardize on the optimum range of particle
size, whether as a powder, or as suspended parti-
cles in a liquid, it is necessary to sieve many pro-
ducts. Fines go to rework, oversize go back to
recomminution.
Chopping and slicing
Here, to a large extent, the processes used are spe-
cifically related to individual raw materials or pro-
ducts. There is, however, an overriding necessity,
which holds in almost all cases, to keep the knife
blades sharp. Blunt knives give rise to fines and
improperly cut material and a corresponding
financial loss.
Chopping is the easier process - the ubiquitous
bowl chopper, properly programmed, can deal
with most requirements. Slicing, however, fre-
quently has to be carried out by specially tailored
equipment Such a case is that of cut groats, which
constitute the highest volume oat product for
human consumption, forming as they do the basis
of porridge, oat cakes, cereal bars, and so on. The
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cutter used for this purpose consists of a hollow
perforated drum, rotating with a doctor knife
close to its outside surface. Groats within the
drum project though the holes and are cut, usually
into three pieces, which then constitute 'pinhead'
oatmeal. These are the bare bones of what is quite
a sophisticated operation. Slicing of nuts, e.g.
almonds, also requires specialized equipment.
Chilling and freezing
Quite apart from their preservation function, these
processes, particularly freezing, are integral parts
of the structuring and presentation of some snack
foods. The obvious examples are ice-cream and
many analogues. The aeration and the physical
nature (hard or soft) of ice-cream cannot be
accomplished without ancillary freezing.
Brining and curing
Salt is the primary agent in both these processes,
which are quite similar. Other agents may be
added to the brine for curing purposes: nitrates
and/or nitrites, for example, and special flavouring
materials.
Brining, which is mostly carried out on meat
and fish, results in two essential effects, namely
dehydration by osmosis and preservation. Addi-
tional effects are on flavour and colour.
Brining and curing may be carried out by
straightforward immersion, by 'tumbled' immer-
sion to speed up penetration of the cure into hams
and by vacuum and pressure methods.
PRODUCTS
FLAKED, ROLLED AND GRANULATED
BREAKFAST PRODUCTS
The line dividing breakfast food products and
snack foods is not at all precise - corn flakes, for
example, are now being widely advertised as
being suitable for any daytime use. Consequently,
this section cannot be unambiguously divided
into the two areas. A start will, however, be
made on what is largely accepted as being the
breakfast food area, viz. cereal products. These
may, however, be at times combined with items
sourced from potatoes and other vegetable (and
largely starchy) items and small quantities of
other additives.