Expansion of partially defatted peanuts by a new texturizing process called “Intensification of Vaporization by Decompression to the Vacuum” (IVDV)

The current work introduces a new texturizing process called “Intensification of Vaporization by Decompression to the Vacuum”, proposing it as a post-treatment for reconstitution of partially defatted snacks and distorted kernels. The resulting IVDV expanded low-fat snack products allow processors to meet consumer demand for healthier snack foods. IVDV process consisted in subjecting humid defatted kernels to high steam pressure, reached in <1s, followed by a decompression to vacuum, allowing by that a full shape recovery while assuring better morphological, organoleptic and rheological properties at a time. IVDV process parameters (steam pressure, water content and processing time) were optimized by mean of Response Surface Methodology leading to higher defatting and expansion ratios, better grain appearance and high consumer acceptability. A compromise between all response parameters generated from a multiple optimization resulted in the following optimal conditions: 17.3% d.b. water content, 12∗105Pa steam pressure and 18s processing time.The increasing need of efficient and eco-friendly processing methods to produce reduced fat nuts led to deeper interest in a new defatting method called Mechanical Expression Preserving Shape Integrity (MEPSI) coupled to a novel expansion process by “Intensification of Vaporization by Decompression to the Vacuum” (IVDV). In this study, IVDV process was implemented and optimized to produce low-fat peanuts with reduced fat, with improved structural qualities, including higher defatting and expansion ratios, optimal appearance, textural properties and sensory acceptance. Notably, this innovative process is currently applied on an industrial scale and on many oleaginous seeds other than peanuts. Moreover, MEPSI combined to IVDV found solutions to health conscious consumers and were proven to be significantly efficient and profitable to nuts industries. IVDV gave satisfactory results since it lead to a full shape recovery of the defatted peanuts while preserving the sensory, textural, physiological and organoleptic qualities of the finished product (aroma, taste, color, texture, overall acceptability).