Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is a value added export‐oriented coconut product. One of the major by‐products of VCO called as VCO cake is a rich source of protein (15%) which is presently underutilized. The effect of important variables including percent of VCO cake (20–30%), screw speed (300–350 rpm) and feed moisture (14–18%) on physical, pasting, functional, textural, and sensory attributes of VCO cake based extruded snacks were estimated using Box and Behnken Design. The responses studied were expansion ratio, bulk density, peak viscosity, hardness, water solubility index, water absorption index and overall acceptability of sensory attributes. The optimized conditions obtained for the extrudates were 28.7% VCO cake, 14% feed moisture, and 300 rpm screw speed with the maximum desirability of 0.88. The percentage of protein, carbohydrate, crude fiber, and ash in the optimized sample were 11.14, 74.19, 1.58, and 2.3%, respectively. The promising results suggest that addition of VCO cake has improved the protein content of the extrudates with high consumer acceptability.
Practical application
Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is a leading value‐added product of coconut. Among the different production methods of VCO, hot processed VCO has more functional compounds such as polyphenols, antioxidants, and phytosterols. Hence, it is mainly used to consume orally. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)‐Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod, India, has been transferred the VCO production technology to about 30 entrepreneurs from the last 5 years. The mean recovery of VCO cake during hot process VCO production is estimated at 6.3–8.8% of fresh kernel weight (i.e., 1 kg kernel give 63–88 g VCO cake) of the WCT coconut variety. VCO cake is a rich source of protein. By selling this by‐product in the form of extrudates would definitely give more income to the entrepreneurs apart from residue management. The results indicated that 28.7% VCO cake in the extruded formulation gave a nutritious product with a calorific value of 388 imparted with the natural sweetness of VCO cake.
