Abstract
Consumers' demand for ready-to-eat extruded snack is increasing due to their convenience and time saving. Extrusion cooking is the most commonly used technology for manufacturing ready-to-eat snack products. However, improper management of extrusion parameters such as the barrel temperature, feed moisture content, pressure, and other parameters of the extruder can influence the quality of extruded snack foods. This paper aimed to review the effects of extrusion process conditions on the quality of the extruded snack. According to this review, most of the nutritional composition and anti-nutritional factors are sensitive to the extruder's high barrel temperature. High barrel temperature decreased the anti-nutritional factors of the extrudates. Low feed moisture content and high barrel temperature minimize the bulk density and hardness while increasing the extruded snack's expansion ratio and water solubility index. In contrast, low barrel temperature increased the color and appearance of the extrudates while decreasing the flavor and overall acceptability of the extrudates. In general, this review indicated that extrusion processing parameters need to be optimized to deliver nutrient-rich extruded snack with appropriate physical, functional, and sensory properties.