Project report for EXTRUDED PELLETS FROM MAIDA FOR FRYING

Extruded Pellets from Maida Industry has a good market potential in India and it is prepared mainly from three basic ingredients such as flour, water, and salt. The basic process of dough mixing, sheet forming, compounding, sheeting/reduction, and cutting are essentially constant for all machine-made extruded pellets. Different ingredients and their functionality in extruded pellets processing were discussed as well. Guidelines were provided to select the right ingredients to produce high quality extruded pellets products. Processing properties, appearance, and color of extruded pellets are the three key criteria used to judge a process and raw material quality. High quality extruded pellets should be bright in color with very slow discoloration, have an adequate shelf life without visible microbiological deterioration or oxidative rancidity, and have appropriate flavor and textural characteristics which will vary according to the extruded pellets type and region.

A good level of dough extensibility ensures that dough sheets do not shrink back during successive roll passes. The importance of the pasting properties of starch to the texture of cooked extruded pellets has been well-documented. The required soft, smooth, and elastic textural properties of certain types of white salted extruded pellets can be best obtained from wheat with high starch paste viscosity and high swelling starch properties. Alkaline extruded pellets do not have the same requirement for high starch swelling properties. Extruded pellets made from flour with high swelling starches have softer texture than those with low swelling starch. Extruded pellets should be bright and slow in discoloration with time after manufacturing. For white salted extruded pellets, a white or creamy white color is desirable.

The global snack pellets market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.8% over the forecast period 2020 - 2026. This market was valued at INR 3, 73, 01, 730 Crores in 2019.The demand for extruded pellets would be mainly from urban areas where there are working couples, and product, a distant market segment which has emerged is the children's and school, college going students' market. According to a survey, the annual demand for ready-to-serve product is estimated at 4.30 lakhs tones. This works out to a per capita demand of 0.50 Kg. per year. Even at the conservative level of 0.5 kg the demand for extruded pellets in a town having population of 3 lakh is estimated at 150 tons per annum. The population of major towns in the region varies from about 2 lakhs to 20 lakhs. As such, the demand could range from 100 tons to 1000 tons per year. At present, there are a few local units manufacturing extruded pellets. Taking the capacity of a tiny unit at 150 to 200 tons per year, there is scope for 4 to 5 units depending on the population. Increasing preference for ready to eat food because of the increasing numbers of working couples etc. extruded pellets are a value added item made from flour. Amongst processed cereal products in India, extruded pellets have a share of about 45% in terms of output and constitute the largest segment in this sector of the processed food market. Extruded pellets are relatively more popular in the north-eastern region where in some states they are consumed as regular breakfast item.