Product engineering in the case of extruded instant powders

Starch based instant powders are usually produced by cooking/gelatinizing i n an excess of water with subsequent drying and milling. Important product attributes are the specific weight and the instant properties of the powder , as well as the taste, the viscosity, and the mouth-feel of the reconstitu ted gel. Cooking extrusion is an alternative energy saving process. Process development usually takes a long time and proves expensive due to the larg e number of different process parameters and their possible combinations. F or two exemplary products it is demonstrated how the screw configuration an d the target range of process parameters can be defined by statistical tria l design. Final optimization ("fine tuning") and scale-up assure efficient process design according to product needs.