CONVENIENCE AND HEALTH FOODS 3 (1+2)

Lesson 3 : Cereal Based Traditional Convenience Foods And Snacks

Shelf stable fried products

Fried products form the largest group of snack foods marketed in our country. A large number of fried foods are made using flours of rice, wheat, black gram and bengal gram. Frying aids in cooking and destruction of anti nutritive factors. Moisture evaporation and shelf stability is got. It imparts crispness and fried aroma which makes fried products very acceptable.

Shakar paras and namkeen paras

Meaning- These are sweet and salty products prepared from stiff dough containing wheat flour, vanaspati, water, sugar or salt respectively. The dough is flattened into a thin sheet, cut into square shapes and fried in oil at 140-160˚C.

Characteristics

1. The inclusion of oil or fat in the dough imparts crispness in the product.
2. The Frying is done at 140 to 160˚ C
3. Frying at temperature above 170˚C puffs up the product to give excessive fragility and crumbliness.
4. The moisture content of the Shakar paras ranges from 2-6 per cent.
5. The fat content varies from 25-37 per cent.
6. Due to low moisture and fat content, the product does not support microbial growth and remains stable for long periods, if packed in moisture proof packets.
7. Unevenly fried products may develop mould growth.
8. The products are susceptible to peroxidation of fats resulting in off flavor and rancidity.

Marketing

• Though the sweet and salty snacks from wheat flour are liked, the commercial marketing does not take place. This is due to non availability of data regarding shelf life, packaging etc.
• The preparation method is simple and does’nt require any sophisticated equipment, these products are difficult to market with reasonable profit margin

Fried products from rice and legumes Among the products based on rice and legumes , chakli, tenglol, muchorai and kodbele are popular. Chakli and tengalol are based on rice and black gram in the proportion of 4:1 and 3:1 respectively. A stiff dough is extruded through a hand operated press and fried.

Characteristics

• Crispness and soft texture are the desirable characteristics.
• Low proportion of pulse and increasing the shortening or oil addition to dough improves the crispness of products.
• Toasting or steaming the cereal pulse mix improves the crispness of deep fat fried product.
• Flour particle size and degree of gelatinization of starch also affects the crispness.

A completely mechanized extrusion cum frying factories are established in India to produce the fried snacks.

• Manchorai is prepared from rice and green gram dal flour used in equal proportions.
• Kodbele is prepared from rice flour and roasted Bengal gram and optionally coconut powder.
• Use of hydrogenated fat for frying and better packaging, lower oxygen and water vapor permeability can improve the shelf life of fried snacks.