A method for estimation of the upper temperature limit of water loss by food systems during preservation (drying, baking, extrusion, smoking, etc.) is proposed. These temperatures are related to the lower and higher critical solution temperatures, which were shown to depend on the chemical structure of system components. A determination method for the lower and higher critical solution temperatures in the plasticization curves obtained by calorimetry was developed.

The effect of different levels of feed moisture (12-17%) during extrusion cooking, using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder on selected nutritional and physical properties of extruded products was investigated. Four different formulations were used based on wheat flour and corn starch with the addition of 10% brewer's spent grain (BSG) and red cabbage (RC) trimming reducing the flour and starch. The samples were: wheat flour+BSG (WBSG), corn starch+BSG (CBSG), wheat flour+red cabbage (WRC) and corn starch+red cabbage (CRC). Process conditions utilised were: constant feed rate of 25kg/h, screw speed 200rpm and barrel temperature of 80 and 120°C. The results indicated that increasing the water feed to 15% increased the level of total dietary fibre (TDF) in all the extrudates while extrusion processing increased the level of TDF in WBSG, CBSG and CRC but decreased in WRC products. Extrusion cooking increased the level of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total phenolic compounds (TPC) in WRC and CRC. In addition to water feed level affecting the TDF of the extrudates, also affected were the expansion ratio, bulk density, hardness, WSI, SME and colour. The protein level of the products and hardness of extrudates were related to the different formulations.