LIU Chao, HE Zhifei, LI Xue, ZENG Lingying, LI Hongjun
This research investigates the correlation between the composition of different cereals and the puffing property of cereal products, with six different cereals (rice, wheat, corn, glutinous rice, millet, and oat) as raw materials. The results showed that some indexes of extruded cereal products such as water absorption index and water solubility index were greatly improved. The swelling degree was negatively correlated with protein and fat content, but positively correlated with starch content; protein and fat content should be controlled within a reasonable range; the water solubility index was significantly positively correlated with the protein content, and was strongly negatively correlated with the total starch content; the gelatinization degree was powerfully positively correlated with the total starch content, and significantly negatively correlated with protein and crude fat content. In addition, the puffing characteristics of rice, wheat and glutinous rice were better than those of corn, millet and oats. Among them, glutinous rice showed excellent indexes of expansion, bulk density, water solubility, gelatinization degree, hardness and brittleness, as well as best puffing properties. In summary, among the six kinds of cereal materials, rice, wheat and glutinous rice could be used as the primary raw materials for extrusion due to their excellent extrusion characteristics, with appropriate addition of corn, millet and oat if taking cost into consideration.