Food extrusion can be used to produce pasta and other cold-formed products, ready-to eat cereals, snacks, pet food, confectionery products, modified starches for soup, baby food and instant foods, beverage bases and textured (or texturized) vegetable protein (TVP). One of the more popular food ingredients in recent years is produced via extrusion cooking; TVP can be made from high soy protein soy flour or concentrate (some other material sources are cotton seeds, wheat and oats) and can be extruded into various shapes, from chunks to flakes, nuggets to grains to strips.
As Mian Riaz, Ph.D., of Texas A&M’s Extrusion Technology Program has described it, “(S)oy protein...today is on the hot list of ingredients for its ability to contribute to two top food trends--the continued quest for high-quality, low-fat foods and the thriving field of functional and nutraceutical foods.”1 As Riaz explains, soy protein concentrates and soy protein isolates have the benefits of a neutral flavor profile as well as high functionality. He notes, “Meat extenders are produced from the extrusion processing of defatted soy flour or flakes and soy concentrates, and they represent the largest portion of textured protein.”