Application of supercritical carbon dioxide extrusion in food processing technology

Extrusion process is one of the most important innovations of the 20th century applied in many industries. Extrusion is a technology that is increasingly used for the production of various food products, especially snacks and breakfast cereals. Supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) as a non-toxic, non-flammable and inexpensive, is applied in many processes, including the extrusion technology. Supercritical CO2 extrusion process (SCFX) found its application primarily in the processing and manufacturing plastic, but recently more and more begins to be applied in food production and processing. Scientific researches in this area are based in production of extrudates with improved properties compared to conventional extrusion process without the addition of CO2. A number of applications of SCFX in food processing technology will be reviewed and numerous advantages over the conventional process will be described in this paper.