ABSTRACT
The first food extrusions involved the use of piston or ram-type extruders to stuff casings in the manufacture of sausages and processed meats. The principal advantages of the modern food extruder, leading to their expanded role in the food processing industry, were given by O. B. Smith. Pet foods are the largest single product type produced on extrusion equipment. Expanded corn collets or curls were first extruded in 1936 but the product was not commercially developed until 1946 by the Adams Corp. Applying basic extrusion technology used in the cooking of cereal grains to defatted oil seed protein resulted in a texturized product having meat-like structure and a fibrous texture. Increasing world population and a shrinking conventional energy supply trends focus on the need to transform raw agricultural products consisting of starch, plant protein, and fat directly and efficiently into foods having high acceptability.
