We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
Delighted Cooking

Advertiser Disclosure

Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

How We Make Money

We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently from our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Cooking

What is Extrusion Cooking?

Malcolm Tatum
By
Updated May 16, 2024
Our promise to you
DelightedCooking is dedicated to creating trustworthy, high-quality content that always prioritizes transparency, integrity, and inclusivity above all else. Our ensure that our content creation and review process includes rigorous fact-checking, evidence-based, and continual updates to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

Editorial Standards

At DelightedCooking, we are committed to creating content that you can trust. Our editorial process is designed to ensure that every piece of content we publish is accurate, reliable, and informative.

Our team of experienced writers and editors follows a strict set of guidelines to ensure the highest quality content. We conduct thorough research, fact-check all information, and rely on credible sources to back up our claims. Our content is reviewed by subject matter experts to ensure accuracy and clarity.

We believe in transparency and maintain editorial independence from our advertisers. Our team does not receive direct compensation from advertisers, allowing us to create unbiased content that prioritizes your interests.

Extrusion cooking is a technique that makes it possible to create prepared foods within a very short period of time. A number of packaged food products are manufactured using this method, including various types of cereals, textured vegetable protein or TVP products, and a variety of different types of snack foods. Extruded products are found in just about every kitchen pantry today.

The actual process of extrusion cooking is very simple. Essentially, the food product is heated under a high degree of pressure, then slowly forced through a series of pores into another cooking chamber. As this process takes place, the moisture content of the food is reduced significantly, leaving behind a product that is thoroughly cooked and dried. The remaining extruded product is then ready for inclusion in dry mixes or further processing to produce many of the packaged products that many consumers rely upon today.

A wide range of packaged foods are prepared by using high tech extrusion cooking techniques. Many of the salty snacks found in supermarkets are prepared using this cooking method. Even breakfast bars made and similar types of healthy foods made with cereal are created using ingredients prepared with this type of cooking. The manufactured foods created using this process are not limited to grains. Soybeans are often prepared using extrusion cooking, with the resulting product forming the basis for a number of vegetarian products.

Because extrusion cooking is a process that combines exposure to high temperatures in a very short period of time, it is possible to produce large quantities of finished products in a very short period of time. Opponents to this process claim that the process robs the food of essential vitamins and nutrients, while proponents of the process understand that with certain foods, extrusion techniques actually lock in essential minerals and vitamins. In any case, extrusion cooking provides many of us with the convenience foods that are part of our daily diet, and are very likely to be with us for many years to come.

DelightedCooking is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
Malcolm Tatum
By Malcolm Tatum , Writer
Malcolm Tatum, a former teleconferencing industry professional, followed his passion for trivia, research, and writing to become a full-time freelance writer. He has contributed articles to a variety of print and online publications, including DelightedCooking, and his work has also been featured in poetry collections, devotional anthologies, and newspapers. When not writing, Malcolm enjoys collecting vinyl records, following minor league baseball, and cycling.
See our Editorial Process Share Feedback

Related Articles

Discussion Comments

By pastanaga — On May 28, 2014

@croydon - There are definitely foods that can go through extrusion machines none the worse for wear, or even better off. I imagine tomatoes do well in them, as their nutrients are made easier to digest if they are subjected to heat.

But a food extruder should be used judiciously, in my opinion. We worry too much about the wrong things. If we paid more attention to the nutritional value of food, the world would be a healthier place.

By croydon — On May 28, 2014

@KoiwiGal - Most foods are going to end up being cooked at some point or another and the nutrients will be lost at that point anyway, if they are that fragile. But extrusion cooking sounds relatively fast compared with other ways of cooking grains, so it might actually conserve vitamins in comparison.

As for moisture, the same thing applies. The kinds of foods that are subjected to extrusion cooking are the ones that you'd probably boil at home anyway, like soy beans. We need cheap and easy ways to process foods like this so that they can be stored, or we open ourselves up to fluctuating food prices.

By KoiwiGal — On May 27, 2014

I can't imagine how this wouldn't completely ruin the food though. I mean, you are essentially making it into paste with an extruding machine, so any original texture must go out the window. And then you get rid of all the moisture and cook it. There are plenty of vitamins that are destroyed by high heat and there are even more that are water soluble, so they would be lost when the liquids are drained.

Which means you're left with almost nothing of nutritional value at the end of the process. It might last a long time, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing worth waiting for.

Malcolm Tatum

Malcolm Tatum

Writer

Malcolm Tatum, a former teleconferencing industry professional, followed his passion for trivia, research, and writing...
Read more
DelightedCooking, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

DelightedCooking, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.