may soon need to check for dairy or contamination in fiber soon

July 19, 2001

From Food Online News

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Putting the Missing Ingredient into Snack Foods More...

7/16/2001 Increasing the dietary fiber from less than three to more than 10

percent in favorite snack foods is now possible with help from Agricultural

Research Service scientists. The best part is that consumers can get the

added health benefit of the fiber without tasting the difference.

Many snack foods are cooked using a method known as extrusion. This is the

process of forcing corn, wheat or rye meal flour and other ingredients

through a dye under high pressure, and sometimes heat, essentially cooking

the mixture.

Until now, it has been difficult to add cereal fibers during extrusion

without causing undesirable texture, which then decreases consumer

acceptance, according to food technologist I. Onwulata of the ARS

Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pa. (www.arserrc.gov/www)

However, Onwulata and his team found that by including dairy proteins such

as casein or whey as a binder to hold everything together, they could also

add more dietary fiber during extrusion cooking. The texture of the

resulting snack food was found to be comparable in texture to other snack

foods currently on the market, according to Onwulata.

Products such as breakfast cereals, corn puffs, cheese curls and energy bars

are sometimes prepared using the extrusion process. Many of these products

have less than one gram of fiber per 50 grams of product. According to

Onwulata, his product can contain as many as 15 grams of fiber in a 50-gram

bar. The recommended fiber intake is 20 to 35 grams a day, but Americans

average only about 15 grams of fiber a day in their diets. Studies suggest

fiber decreases the risk of heart disease, some cancers, high blood pressure

and diabetes.

In a separate project, Onwulata has filed for a patent on a process that

uses milk protein to envelope fiber and keep it from soaking up water when

used in many foods. Reducing the water-holding capacity of the fiber

improves food quality, according to Onwulata. He works in the ERRC's Dairy

Products Research Unit.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research

agency.

Source: Agricultural Research Service, USDA

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