Snacks industries

Starches have been used by the cereal and snack industries to achieve specific textures, e.g. increased crispness, especially in high-temperature, short-time processes.135,179 Snack market trends emphasize lower fat, including fried textures from baked products, high fiber and simpler processes. Starch can contribute significantly to the achievement of each of these targets. 

Compounded Flavors. Liquid or dry blends of natural or synthetic flavor compounds are called compounded flavors. Most commercial preparations are available as water- and oil-soluble Hquids, spray-dried and plated powders, emulsions, and carbohydrate-, protein-, and fat-based pastes. Compounded flavors are used throughout the food industry in confections, baked goods, snack foods, carbonated beverages, and processed foods (53). 

Trade associations are often a good source of information. If they cannot answer questions directly, they may be able to offer information for making contacts in the industry. There are numerous trade associations on both a national and local level in the USA. They include the Snack Food Association, the National Food Processors Association, the Northwest Food Processors Association, the California League of Food Processors, the California Grape Commission, and numerous others. 

Nuttall estimated that 15 to 20% of chocolate is eaten on its own, i.e., in candy form.51 The remainder is used to coat other foods including ice cream or confectionery products. According to the same source, nearly all people in highly industrialized countries have eaten confectionery at some time, and over 90% of the population may buy it on a regular basis. The author viewed confectionery as one of the first "convenience" foods, leading to the popularity of chocolate as a snack food. 

Novel utilities for presently available products are a more productive area. (Who would not be interested if the fiber from grains could be used functionally in the snack food industry for reasons other than as a filler.) But these types of utility demand extreme physico-chemical modifications involving prolonged research and much expenditure. 

Lipases are used to hydrolyse milk fat for a variety of uses in the confectionary, sweet, chocolate, sauce and snack food industries and there is interest in using immobilized lipases to modify fat flavours for such applications (Kilara, 1985). Enzymatic interesterification of milk lipids to modify rheological properties is also feasible. 

In processed snack foods, fat content can be defined as the amount of material extractable using a Soxhlet/chloroform extraction technique that takes in excess of seven hours to complete. Such lengthy extractions require large amounts of hazardous solvents that must be completely evaporated during the analysis (18). Using SFE with industrial grade CO at flow rates of 20 ml/min, we present... 

Physical vapor deposition is also used to add a clear coat to aluminum balloons and snack bags. The deposition of a specific film made from polyester on the outside of shiny, aluminum balloons gives the balloon added strength while the film remains transparent. The deposition of a similar polyester film on snack bags provides a solid barrier to gases and smells. This industrial phase change is not particularly glamorous or well-known, but it is used in many applications that consumers use in everyday products. 

Ajowan oleoresin prepared from seeds gives a warm, aromatic and pleasing flavour to food products and is used in processed foods, snacks, sauces and various vegetable preparations. Ajowan oil can be treated with aqueous alkaline solution to extract thymol (Pruthi, 2001). Fatty oils produced from ajowan seed have their use in various pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, are used in the soap industry for flavouring and as a deodorant. They are also used for perfuming disinfectant soaps and as an insecticide. A thymol-free fraction of the oil, known as thymene , finds application in soap perfumes (Malhotra and Vijay, 2004). 

Industrial fryers generally are of two types (1) those who sell all the purchased oil with the product, and (2) those who must recondition and occasionally dispose of oil. Requirements for the selection and use of frying oils in these applications differ.175 Industrial snack food fryers, designed to use all the oil, are equipped with clean-out systems and inline filters. In theory, they should be able to operate indefinitely, only adding make-up oil as needed. In clean label, operations, company policy dictates that no, or minimum, additives can be used. Typically, company personnel periodically inspect and... 

Unidentified, State of the industry report, Snack Food Wholesale Bakery, 89(6), SI-3-SI-74 (2000). 

The machinery has been borrowed from the plastics industry. An early single screw extruder was used in the 1940s to produce a snack product from maize grits but the operational advantage of twin screw machines was demonstrated later. It appears that they are more efficient in mass transport, less heat is dissipated, and therefore heat transfer can be better regulated by barrel heating (Lo et al. 1998). 

Availability and cost of oil are important economic factors. Even the best performing frying oil is not beneficial to the business if it is not available in sufficient quantities. The cost of oil is extremely critical for the industry. Most fried snack foods contain 20-40% oil. Therefore, the snack food company has to minimize the delivered cost of oil at the plant. Sometimes, the procurement department purchases oil from a supplier that does not have good control over their operation. This ends up costing money and goodwill for the snack food company in the long run. 

It was mentioned earlier that the standard procedure in the snack food industry is to discard oil when the free fatty acid in the fryer oil reaches or exceeds 0.5%. The experimental oil contained 2% free fatty acids, and yet the product flavor was unaffected until the oil began to oxidize. 

Industrial frying is one of the major segments in the frying industry. Fried food in the United States and other countries are prepared and marketed in various forms. The most popular of these products is the salty snack food segment. This segment consists of a wide variety of products such as potato chips, tortilla chips, com chips, extmded products, pretzels, fried or roasted nuts, and so on. Out of all these products, potato chips has been known to the people for a long time. 

Today s leader, Frito-Lay Inc. of Texas, has brought about the most dramatic evolution in the American snack food industry. In 1932, Mr. Ehner Doolin of San Antonio started the Fritos brand Com Chips, and Mr. Herman W. Lay started to sell potato chips to the stores in Nashville, TN. In September of 1961, just 29 years after the two companies began their ventures, the Frito Company and H. W. Lay Company merged to become the Frito-Lay Company. In 1965, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola merged. Today, Frito-Lay is the leading snack food producing company in the world. The company sells numerous salty snack food products that include potato chips, com chips, extmded products, nuts, and a variety of other products. 

Potato chips sales are the highest in the snack food industry. The next big seller is the tortilla chip. Table 5 lists the sales figures for the major snack food products in the United States (5). 

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