Evaluation of Physicochemical and Microstructure Properties of Expanded Quinoa

 Quinoa, which is known as the mother grain,has higher protein content than common cereals and possesses a large lysine content. Quinoa is composed mainly of carbohydrates (60-75%), of which 10-13% is dietary fiber. Quinoa also has a slightly higher protein content (12-16%) compared with cereal grains and fat content (5-9%) that is rich in unsaturated fatty acids. Quinoa seeds contain similar or slightly higheramounts of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols (2.7-3.8 g/kg). Moreover, quinoa is gluten-free, thus providing the ability to enhance the selection of gluten-free products forconsumers with celiac disease, but this type of characteristicis challenging to development of bakery products from quinoa with desirable physicochemical properties. Processing of cereal grains and pseudo-cereals into products that deliver a nutritive valueto consumers represents a considerable opportunity for large scale food processing. There havebeen some reported studies on roasting, extrusion, steam pre-conditioning and pearling of quinoafor further uses. Extrusion cooking is a promising technology for improvement of functional properties of quinoa flour. The Evaluation of physicochemical properties and microstructure of Expanded quinoa as affected by extrusion conditions was the main goal of this project.

 In this study, a parallel twin-screw extruder (Jinan Saxin, China) with die diameter of 3 mm was applied. The effects of extrusion process parameters including feed moisture content (14 and 16%) and die temperature (130, 150 and 170 °C) on final moisture content, bulk density, water absorption index (WAI), color parametersL* (lightness), a*(redness), b*(yellowness), hardness, and microstructure of Expanded quinoa were studied. Extrusion was carried out using a co-rotating twin screw extruder with L/D ratio of 10:1 and die diameter of 4 mm. The feed rate of flour and the screw speed were set at 40 kg/h and 200 rpm, respectively. The physicochemical properties were measured using standard methods. The hardness measurement was performed by a texture analyzer. The cylinder steel probe (2 mm diameter) was set to move at a speed of 1 mm/s The samples were punctured by the probe to a distance of 10 mm . The color parameters of the samples were determined by the Hunterlab machine. The morphology of samples was assessed using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

 A comprehensive study on impacts of extrusion processing conditions on quinoa flour was conducted. The effect of process variables on the physicochemical attributes of the extrudates was observed. the expanded quinoa with higher feed moisture content had greater moisture and those extruded at higher die temperatures showed lower moisture content (p<0.05). Moisture can reduce the shear force as a plasticizer and increase the amount of moisture absorption of the product. While increasing the die temperature, the effect of shear force on starch dextrification increases and reduces moisture absorption (p<0.05). WAI was significantly influenced by extrusion variables. In fact, feed moisture content and die temperature both positively changed the WAI of quinoa flour so that all extruded samples had significantly higher WAI than the untreated sample (p<0.05). Moreover, the sample with the higher feed moisture content (24%) treated at the highest extrusion temperature (170 °C) showed the largest and lowest water absorption and Hardness respectively (p<0.05). Another important feature of expanded quinoa is the lightness index, the results revealed that extrusion cooking caused a reduction in L* and enhancements in a* and b*. While changes in color parameters were more pronounced at more severe die temperature, higher feed moisture content counteracted the effects of cooking temperature on the color of the products. As expected from changes in the abovementioned color parameters, the sample with lower feed moisture content (16%) treated at the highest extrusion temperature (170 °C) experienced the greatest color change (ΔE). The texture profile analysis (TPA) indicated that higher feed moisture content yielded extrudates with harder texture whereas, extrusion at higher temperature resulted in lower hardness. The scanning electron micrographs showed that the native quinoa flour encompassed both small- and large-sized starch granules while the extruded sample mainly consisted of disaggregated particles. Furthermore, extrusion cooking of samples with higher feed moisture content caused formation of more uniform starch aggregates with smoother surfaces.