Journal of Food Biochemistry 28 (2004) 387–403. All Rights Reserved. © Copyright 2004, Blackwell Publishing 387 IMPROVING FATTY EXTRUDATE STRUCTURE WITH AMYLASE AND PROTEASE TERESA DE PILLI 1 , CARLA SEVERINI, BARBARA F. CARBONE, ROMA GIULIANI and ANTONIO DEROSSI Dipartimento di Scienze degli Alimenti – Facoltà di Agraria – Università degli Studi di Foggia Via Napoli 25 71100 Foggia, Italy Received for Publication August 15, 2003 Accepted for Publication December 24, 2003 ABSTRACT The extrusion of fatty flour at temperatures less than 100C on the one hand favors less leakage of oil from plant and products, but on the other hand reduces the degree of expansion unless suitable technological coadjuvants are used. Enzymes are generally used in the preparation of bread to mellow gluten and to soften texture. At the moment, there is little information about the use of enzymes to improve the texture of extruded products. The effect of two commercially available enzymes (GRINDAMYL Amylase 1000 and GRINDAMYL Protease 41) on the texture of products obtained from wheat and almond flours extruded at low temperature (54C) was studied. GRINDAMYL Protease 41 was found to affect the rheological charac- teristics of dough by rapid decreasing the consistency during farinographic analyses and by improving the structure of extrudates with a high lipid content (reduced breaking strength, high% porosity and high water solubility index). INTRODUCTION The use of enzymes in baking technology is a very common practice (Van Oort and Hamer 1993). They are responsible for improving dough machinability and bakery product quality. In particular, a-amylases favor the production of fermentable sugars that increase fermentation rate; proteases Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Oxford, UK and Malden, USAJFBCJournal of Food Biochemistry0145-8884Copyright 2004, Blackwell Publishing2004285387403Original Article USE OF ENZYMES IN EXTRUSION PROCESSES T. DE PILLI ET AL. 1 Author for correspondence. TEL: +39 881 589245; FAX: +39 881 740211; EMAIL: t.depilli@ unifg.it