Physical and sensory characteristics of extruded snacks prepared from Foxtail millet based composite flours

The present study focussed on the use of Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) along with other flour for production of ready-to-eat snack products using extrusion cooking. The ultimate objective is to add value to millet and other subtropical crops to enable their commercialisation and thereby provide additional livelihood opportunities to the farmers in semi‑arid regions. Composite flours were prepared using whole Foxtail millet flour and other flours namely; rice flour, chick pea, Amaranth seed flour and cow pea. Nutritional properties of the blends were analyzed and extrusion cooking was carried out using a twin screw extruder at optimised extrusion parameters namely temperature: 115°C and 90°C for two different heating zones, die diameter: 3 mm and screw speed: 400 rpm. The extrudate physical properties namely bulk density, piece density, expansion ratio and moisture retention were also analysed. The organoleptic qualities of extruded samples were analysed by panellists on a 9 point hedonic scale. The results indicated that composite flour (Foxtail millet; Amaranth; Rice; Bengal gram; Cow pea in the ratios of 60:05:05:20:10) could be used to produce quality extrudates with acceptable sensory properties.