Food grains and jaggery-based expanded food: Optimization of process variables, protein efficiency ratio and consumer acceptability

Extrusion parameters for nutritious expanded food with j aggery were optimized following box-benken design using Response Surface Methodology. Jaggery and feed moisture affected physical properties, while nutritional and sensory properties of products were influenced by jaggery only. Optimized level of extrusion parameters consisted of 100 ^oC die head temperature, screw speed of 304 rpm, 14% moisture and 4 g jaggery per 100 g of formulation with 80% maize, 14% defatted soy-meal, and 6% sesame-based formulation having overall desirability of 0.807. This expanded food showed expansion ratio of 3.57, 173.76 kg.m⁻³ bulk density, 15.18% protein with 72.55% invitro protein digestibility and 2.63 protein efficiency ratio, 1.97% total minerals, 2.9 mg.100 g⁻¹ iron, 158 mg.100 g⁻¹ calcium with acceptability score of 8.2 that also indicated the consumer acceptability >7 by 95.37% using 9-point hedonic scale.