If you like puffed food, come and have a look.

As a kind of leisure food, puffed food has appeared in people's lives for a long time. Due to its unique taste, wide variety and exquisite appearance, it is deeply favored by consumers, making it gradually occupy a place in the food market.

What is puffed food

Potatoes, rice, corn, millet, purple sweet potatoes, yams and other ingredients are changed through frying, extrusion, baking, microwave and other processing techniques, and this is puffed food.

Puffed food changes in appearance because the water vapor in the raw materials vaporizes and expands due to high temperature or pressure difference treatment, that is, the volume becomes larger and there are small holes.

What are puffed foods?

Puffed foods are mainly divided into oil-containing puffed foods and non-oil-containing puffed foods. Oil-containing puffed foods refer to puffed foods that are fried with edible oils or have edible oils added and/or sprayed in the product. Non-oil-containing puffed foods refer to puffed foods that do not have edible oils added or sprayed in the product. Common products include potato chips, rice crackers, shrimp crackers, crispy rice crackers, popcorn, crispy snack noodles, crab sticks, snow cakes, rice crackers, etc.

They are not puffed foods

Potato Food

The key to distinguishing these two types of products is to look at the ingredient list. The main raw material of the puffed food ingredient list is potato flour, and the raw material of the potato food ingredient list is generally potato, but there are also puffed food ingredients that contain potatoes. Secondly, the general product packaging will be marked with puffed food, sliced ​​or original cut potato chips.

Due to similar production processes, many pastries and puffed foods may be easily confused in classification. For example, "fat intestine crisps or fat intestine rolls" may be pastries or puffed foods. It is necessary to pay attention to the implementation standards and production license information, and confirm with the company when necessary. Puffed soy products

Although the word "puffed" is included in their names, they are not puffed foods, but rather new types of soy products that use puffing technology. Puffed soy products are made from soy flour, edible soybean meal, soy protein powder, etc., with or without seasonings, and are processed by extrusion and puffing to have a certain tissue state or fiber structure.

Flavored noodle products are convenience foods, which refer to ready-to-eat products made from wheat flour as the main raw material and edible vegetable oil, edible salt, white sugar and spices as auxiliary materials, and processed through extrusion, cooking, cutting, mixing and packaging. Flavored noodle products mostly comply with corporate standards. They can be distinguished by product category, ingredient list, implementation standard, product form, license and production process marked on the label.

The original sin of unhealthy nutrients

In the nutritional composition table, energy and the four core nutrients "protein, fat, carbohydrates, and sodium" are mandatory items to be labeled. If hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogenated fats are contained in the ingredients or used in the production process, the content of trans fat (acid) should also be labeled. Trans fatty acids are unhealthy fats that can cause blood clots, coronary heart disease, obesity, and affect memory.

Nutrient Reference Values ​​(NRVs) are used to indicate the percentage of energy and nutrient content in the daily reference intake. Taking the protein in fresh shrimp strips as an example, eating 30 grams of shrimp strips will ingest 2.1 grams of protein, accounting for 4% of the total protein required by the human body for the whole day. The nutrient content of fresh shrimp strips and cheese-flavored corn chips is indicated by "portions" (the size of 1 portion can be determined according to the characteristics of the food or the recommended amount). According to the net content of 80 grams of fresh shrimp strips and 140 grams of cheese-flavored corn chips, we can calculate the percentage of nutrients obtained from eating a bag of puffed food in the daily nutritional needs of the human body. From the data in the nutritional reference table of puffed food, it can be seen that the energy (converted into calories when entering the body), fat, carbohydrates, and sodium (the main element of salt) consumed by the human body after eating a bag of fresh shrimp strips or a bag of cheese-flavored corn chips are close to or even exceed those of a full meal.

In order to ensure a rich taste, a large amount of oil and salt must be added to puffed foods. Coupled with the rich carbohydrates in the raw materials, puffed foods are "high in calories", "high in fat", "high in carbohydrates" and "high in salt".