Industrial Manufacture of Snack Foods

Dr Sergio O. Serna-Saldivar is the world’s leading expert on the snacks sector. He is the professor and former head of the Biotechnology and Food Engineering Department and Senior Scientist of the Biotechnology Center, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico. Dr Serna-Saldivar is also currently research chair leader regarding the Nutraceutical/Pharmaceutical value of Indigenous Mexican Foods and Plants. Prior to this, he was research scientist at the Soil & Crop Science Dept. at Texas A&M, consultant for EMBRAPA at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and associate professor for the University of Sonora.

Dr Serna-Saldivar has been a member of the American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) for over 25 years. He acted as associate editor for its periodicals Cereal Chemistry and the Journal of Cereal Science. He remains a member of the AACC International Board of Directors. To date, he has authored three books, 17 chapters in other books, nearly 70 journal articles, four patents and was codeveloper of the TAM-202 wheat variety. Dr Serna-Saldivar has also been consultant to many cereal processing companies.

Industrial Manufacture of Snack Foods is destined to become the essential resource for the industry, particularly for technicians and scientists involved in manufacturing snacks and new product development. The book introduces the main snack classifications – popcorn; peanuts and tree nuts; potato snacks including potato chips and fabricated potato snacks; alkaline-cooked maize products (corn and tortilla chips); extruded snacks; wheat-based snacks; and all meat/animal based snacks from jerky to pork cracklings.

From then on, all aspects of creating and manufacturing these snacks are covered starting with selection and processing of raw materials, such as cereal-based dry-milled fractions, potato flour, dry masa flour and properties of oils and different fish and meats. Detailed descriptions of processing the seven main snack types include information on frying, baking, extruding and seasoning processes; and information on packaging, storage, shelf-life and quality control. The book concludes with a section on nutritional value that is particularly pertinent to modern consumers. The book contains over 400 pages of information including flow charts, diagrams, tables, detailed manufacturing processes and references throughout.