Development of corn and flaxseed snacks with high-fibre content using response surface methodology (RSM)

Abstract

With the increasing emphasis on health and well-being, nutrition aspects need to be incorporated as a dimension of product development. Thus, the production of a high-fibre content snack food from a mixture of corn and flaxseed flours was optimized by response surface methodology. The independent variables considered in this study were: feed moisture, process temperature and flaxseed flour addition, as they were found to significantly impact the resultant product. These variables were studied according to a rotatable composite design matrix ( − 1.68, − 1, 0, 1, 1.68). Response variable was the expansion ratio since it has been highly correlated with acceptability. The optimum corn–flaxseed snack obtained presented a sevenfold increase in dietary fibre, almost 100% increase in protein content compared to the pure corn snack, and yielded an acceptability score of 6.93. This acceptability score was similar to those observed for corn snack brands in the market, indicating the potential commercial use of this new product, which can help to increase the daily consumption of dietary fibre.

Keywords::

• extrusion
• response surface methodology
• corn and flaxseed snacks
• expansion ratio

Declaration of interest: This study was financially supported by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). We also like to thank the Food Industry (Indústria de óleos vegetais Pazze and Givaudam) for supplying the ingredient samples and Dra Vanessa Dias Capriles for her help with proximate analyses. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.