Fruit and vegetable mixtures for health-promoting colored extruded snacks

Diet-related non-communicable diseases have an impact on sustainable development and have greatly influenced mortality worldwide, even nowadays, where they regained a greater relevance with COVID-19 pandemic emergence. Food habits and immunity have been closely related, and technological adaptions to produce healthier snacks are now on the global agenda of the food industry. As naturally functional raw materials, fruit and vegetables ( F&V) effectively meet the high nutritional value and sensory appeal necessary to snacks design. This work aimed to harness the potential of such resources, including both native and introduced F&V species that confer visually attractive color to cold processed extrudates. The performance of different F&V processing methods was tested, for final blending with hydrocolloids resulting in sugarless confectionery-like extruded snacks. Liquid and dry milling of F&V yielded colorful pigment-rich ingredients, whose physical characteristics differed in terms of extraction efficiency, water activity, and moisture, with associated technological process advantages or handicaps. Formulas with different hydrocolloids were tested, and the one with the highest sensory acceptability was reported.