SUPERCRITICAL CO2 EXTRUSION – NOVEL TECHNOLOGY IN FOOD INDUSTRY

Nowadays extrusion is an important process in food industry due to the HTST (High Temperature Short Time) effect that is applied in many processes. It is used to produce a wide variety of products, from modified starch and flours, over pasta and meat products, to snack and confectionary products. Although it is considered to be an HTST process, it still may result in the formation of acrylamide and other compounds potentially harmful for human health. To overcome this issue, extrusion assisted with supercritical CO2 has been introduced, opening the possibility to obtain products of retained quality at lower temperatures. The aim of this paper is to give a short overview of research on extrusion with supercritical CO2 and address some issues related to it.