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Protein snacks with new TURBO tools

In recent years, numerous developments have been driven to texturize and “shape” protein-rich raw materials using the extruder. On the one hand, meat substitute products have been developed that, due to their consistency, represent vegetarian or vegan alternatives to meat dishes.

In order to reproduce the fibrous texture of meat as well as possible, long residence times are required, which are reserved for long-screw extruders.

On the other hand, the demand for alternatives to carbohydrate-rich extruded snacks, which are often viewed as disadvantageous from a nutritional perspective, is increasing.
With the introduction of TURBO extrusion technology, it was already possible to process pure pea or bean recipes on our extruders more than 30 years ago. However, acceptance among product manufacturers was not achieved for a long time because the price level was considered too high compared to the usual corn, rice or wheat recipes and the demand and profitability were considered too low.
Only higher-priced potato recipes were accepted and offered in the snack segment due to the beneficial potato aroma.
The increased nutritional awareness of consumers as well as the willingness to spend more money on nutrition and therefore also on healthier snacks has led to a significant increase in demand for protein-containing and high-protein snacks in recent years.
In order to be able to create recipes with a high protein content, the addition of protein concentrates is necessary, which consequently requires a higher proportion of water for homogenization in the extruder.

The reliable processing of protein concentrates was only possible to a limited extent with previous one- or two-stage TURBO process parts.

Only a new generation of TURBO tools has recently made it possible to realize three-, four- or five-stage turbo configurations, which, due to the increased mixing and kneading ability, achieve homogeneous doughs with higher energy inputs even with such demanding recipes.
Various protein sources can be used to produce textured protein snacks: pea, potato, wheat, rice and soy proteins can be processed with the newly developed TURBO tools, as well as animal protein sources.
With tasty spice variations you can make delicious “meatless” protein snacks like our “vegetarian kebab strips”.

 

 

 

Schaaf's new color printing process for snack extrudates

Direct expanded products such as cheese balls, onion rings or peanut flakes have a highly expanded, soft texture that has a loyal fan base.
In the snack sector, however, many consumers prefer crispier, harder crisps, tortilla or pretzel textures, which can be reproduced on Schaaf extruders with optimised dies and recipes as well as the thin-wall technology.
To achieve the desired visual appeal of the snacks, a colour made from natural raw materials is applied to the strand surface using a newly developed offset printing process.
The printing tools used are made of food-grade materials and can therefore be used without restriction.
The new printing process is particularly suitable in combination with the thin-wall technology introduced a few years ago and well established on the market.
Printed patterns of different lines, grids or dots now give the texturally convincing chip-like extrudates the finishing touch.
The same applies to normal strand extrudates, since the printing unit can be combined with all products that are further processed with a cutting or embossing machine.
In particular, it is able to print different strand widths with patterns.
After printing, the strands or thin-walled extrudates are further processed in a cutting or forming machine, dried and finally flavoured.

Soft Peanut Flips

Flips are already available in many different shapes: curved, straight, long, short – the super soft texture combined with a tasty peanut slurry makes this corn product particularly attractive.
The nozzle is available for all our extruder models.

Spoke wheel shaped snacks

We haven't reinvented the "wheel" - but we are proud of the extraordinary shape definition of this new generation of wheel nozzles, which can be used with a classic corn recipe, a tasty potato recipe or other recipe variants.
The nozzle is available for our extruder models 6400 and 9250.

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