
Shaped Snacks
These snacks achieve consumer approval through a combination of crunchy texture, interesting shapes and good flavour retention.
Direct expanded snacks are face cut at the die to form simple shapes such as balls, curls and rings; a profiled die can make more complex shaped ‘character’ products that attract children. The product stream can also be cut to form chipsticks or tubes.
Cooking a mix that is not homogeneous ensures differential expansion, and an uneven texture that mimics cluster snacks.
Stringy biscuits resemble shredded products but have a crispy, cracker-like bite: a variety of appealing surface textures can be created.
Crimping rather than cutting will provide pillow snacks with a light, open texture.