Revista de Processamento e Tecnologia de Alimentos

Abstrato

A Comparative Study of the Effects of Non-starch Polysaccharide Gums on Physical Properties of Single-screw Extruded Aquafeed

Michael L Brown, Parisa Fallahi, Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan, Poonam Singha and Scott Sindelar

A factorial experimental design (5×3×2) was used to investigate the effects of non-starch polysaccharide binding agents on physical properties of single-screw extrusion. Extrusion cooking trials were performed with an ingredient blend for yellow perch, fortified with five non-starch polysaccharide binding agents including three plant-origin gums (guar, wheat gluten, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)) and two microbial-origin exopolysaccharide gums (xanthan and pullulan), with three levels of gum inclusion (3, 6, and 10%), and two levels of screw speed (100 and 150 rpm). Effects of the independent variables on extrudate characteristics were extensively analyzed and included density, expansion ratio, water absorption and solubility indices, pellet durability, and color. Increasing gum level from 3 to 10% led to a considerable increase in unit density of extrudates for xanthan, guar, wheat gluten, CMC, and pullulan by 39.6%, 21%, 11.4%, 30%, and 19.7%, respectively. The minimum (357 kg m-3) and maximum (607 kg m-3) bulk densities were observed for the diets produced with 6% guar at 150 rpm and 10% xanthan at 100 rpm, respectively. The mean values of expansion ratio for the diets containing exopolysaccharide gums were slightly smaller than those of the other diets. Increasing gum inclusion level increased the expansion ratio of the extrudates using xanthan, wheat gluten and pullulan but reduced the expandability of diets used guar gum; increased levels did not change the expansion ratio of extrudates containing CMC. At the highest levels of gum inclusion and screw speed, both pullulan and wheat gluten gums provided better expandability of the feed extrudate. Exopolysaccharide gums resulted in extrudates with significantly higher pellet durability and water solubility indices. Overall, the addition of 6 to 10% non-starch exopolysaccharides could improve the pellet durability of aqua feed extrudates. A future study investigating the effects of feed composition and additional extrusion processing conditions on the physical parameters of these products in aquafeeds would be appropriate.