This is the new initiative of the CREAS Center, it will allow the creation of healthy snacks and pet food, among other products.
In order to deliver new and improved services, the CREAS Center (located on the Curauma Campus of the PUCV) adds this year an extruder equipment to its pilot plant, a new implement brought directly from Germany and that will allow it to diversify the technological offer, precisely in the production of healthy snacks, some plant-based matrices, dry foods for pets and other animals such as fish, birds, among others.
The equipment, co-financed by Corfo within the framework of the TT Green Foods Program, allows food to be extruded, that is, to partially or completely cook a mixture of flours that are subjected to controlled conditions of pressure and temperature to obtain a defined geometric structure.
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This is a unique pilot equipment in Chile, which allows food extrusion tests to be carried out on a low scale, unlike the equipment currently available nationally. In addition, it provides flexibility in its operation, which favors the performance of several tests in a short time, allowing the evaluation of new ingredients, new protein sources and improved formats.
“Food extrusion is an opportunity that will also allow us to evaluate the valorization and application of non-conventional flours obtained from discards and new sources of protein concentrates that in many cases are the basis for the formulation of extruded products for animals,” said John Jara, head Pilot Plant of the CREAS Center.
One of the Center’s objectives in adding this equipment to its technological offer is mainly to produce extruded dog foods based on insect flour, which is part of one of the projects worked on in the TT Green Foods Program.
“It is an ideal instance to transform ourselves into a service specialized in testing the feasibility of applying these insect-based flours, giving value to this input that is obtained from agro-industrial waste,” concluded Samantha León, development engineer at CREAS.
Part of the CREAS team already had the opportunity to learn about the benefits of the extruder during their visit to the National University of the Altiplano (UNAP) in Puno, Peru, where they saw the potential use of insect-based flour to develop a food alternative for pets.
Other uses that can be given to this equipment are the production of snacks and farinaceous products with healthy attributes, the use of non-conventional flours with nutritional or functional value and new developments for animal feed.
