Cooking-extruding food

A model of inter-industry technology transfer, extrusion and then cook-extrusion are among the most significant innovations in the food industry in recent decades.

Curing-extrusion, a technology that simultaneously combines mechanical and thermal treatment over a very short period of time, is a continuous operation that can involve numerous functions: material transport, mixing, compression, kneading, shearing, chemical reaction, heating, cooling, baking, shaping...

From an economic point of view, the technology transfer observed at the extrusion level deserves to be retained as a model for analyzing the effects of technical progress for three reasons: firstly, the multi-sectoral nature of its diffusion; secondly, the property - remarkable for an innovation in the productive system - of saving both capital and labor; and thirdly, its capacity to induce innovations.

After the pre-cooking of cereals, and the manufacture of snacks and breakfast cereals, food applications for extrusion cooking have developed rapidly. Today, they concern almost all sectors of activity. What's more, current developments in wet cooking-extrusion are promising: protein texturing, fractionation of vegetable matter.