Gluten-free healthy snack with high nutritional and nutraceutical value elaborated from a mixture of extruded underutilized grains (quality protein maize/tepary bean)

An optimized gluten-free healthy snack (OGFHS) was developed from a mixture of protein quality maize/tepary bean (70:30), applying extrusion-cooking. The extrusion conditions were obtained from the axial combination of process variables (feed moisture content [FMC = 15%-25%]/extrusion temperature [ET = 120 °C-170 °C]/screw speed [SS = 50 rpm-240 rpm]). The desirability function response surface methodology was applied as an optimization technique in three response variables (expansion index [EI]/apparent density [AD]/hardness [H]) to obtain maximum EI and minimum AD and H. The best combination to produce OGFHS was FMC = 16.4%/ET = 137 °C/VT = 237 rpm. The optimized conditions to obtain OGFHS caused little change in the nutritional and nutraceutical properties of the unprocessed grains mixture. OGFHS (50 g) was compared with two commercial snacks (CheetosMR, TotisMR), showing better protein content, total dietary fiber and AoxA, as well as high acceptability and lower energy content than commercial snacks. Due to its great nutritional properties and AoxA,OGFHS could be used for health promotion and as an alternative to commercial snacks with low nutritional value and high energy content.