~ 1356 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2018; 7(4): 1356-1361 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2018; 7(4): 1356-1361 Received: 05-05-2018 Accepted: 10-06-2018 Dayakar Rao B Principal Scientist, ICAR- Indian Institute of Millets Research, Telangana, India Suneetha A Research associate, ICAR- Indian Institute of Millets Research, Telangana, India Srenuja D Senior research fellow, ICAR- Indian Institute of Millets Research, Telangana, India Kiranmai E Senior research fellow, ICAR- Indian Institute of Millets Research, Telangana, India Correspondence Dayakar Rao B Principal scientist, ICAR- Indian Institute of Millets Research, Telangana, India Standardization of sorghum based extruded snacks by using hot extrusion technology Dayakar Rao B, Suneetha A, Srenuja D and Kiranmai E Abstract The present study was focused on the utilization of Sorghum millet with the composite flours for developing Ready-To-Eat foods in snacks category by using hot extrusion cooking technology. The ultimate objective is to value addition to Sorghum millet and other subtropical crops to enable their commercialization and also to conduct storage studies for the developed extruded products. Composite flours were prepared using whole Sorghum millet flour and other flours namely rice flour, besan flour, corn flour and corn semolina. Extrusion cooking was carried out using a twin screw extruder at optimized extrusion parameters. Effect of process parameters like temperature (135 °C), screw speed (25 Hz) and feeder speed (11Hz) on physical properties (expansion ratio, bulk density and hardness) of extrudate samples and proximate composition (Moisture, ash protein and fat) were investigated. Effect of extreme and initial process conditions on functional and proximate quality of the extrudates were also evaluated. And also storage characteristics of the extruded sorghum products were conducted. The products were packed in LDPE (Low density polyethylene) and ALPE (Aluminum lined polyethylene) and stored for 3 months and analyzed for every 15 days interval. The moisture content, protein, fat, hardness and sensory score were analyzed. The moisture content of the samples packed in LDPE showed increase in moisture content. Keywords: twin screw extrusion, composite flour, physical properties, sensory evaluation Introduction Millets are important ecological food security crops known for their nutritional quality and can be an immediate subsistence food for a nutrient-scarce community. Millets are known for drought resistance and need very little resources for their growth (Joshi et al. 2008). Although recognized as nutritious cereals, they are generally absent in commercial channels; rather they are little explored for the possibility of developing novel food products using new processing technologies. Sorghum is a tropical plant belonging to the family of Poaceae, is one of the most important crops in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Anglani, 1998). More than 35% of sorghum is grown directly for human consumption. The rest is used primarily for animal feed, alcohol production and industrial products (FAO, 1995 and Awika and Rooney, 2004a). Sorghum (Sorghum bicolour L.) is the fourth most important cereal consumed and cultivated in India during both rainy (kharif) and post-rainy (rabi) seasons. And it is a cheap source of energy, protein, iron and zinc next only to pearl millet among all cereals and pulses. However, it is popularly grown for feed, fodder and more recently for bio-fuel purposes in the world. As sorghum is rich in starch and protein (kafirin), it can be regarded as substitute for the cereals that are presently used for the production of ready to eat (RTE) snacks. High temperature, short-time (HTST) extrusion cooking could be used to produce sorghum-based extruded snacks of high nutritional quality and in a ready-to-eat form. Extrusion is one of the commonly adopted processing techniques by food industries which employ mixing, forming, texturing and cooking to develop a novel food product (Singh et al., 2016; Gulati, 2016) [11] . Extrusion technology is now widely used in the agri food processing industry, where it is referred to as extrusion cooking. Food material reaches to its melting point or plasticizing point when shear energy exerted by rotating screw heats the barrel. It is one of the contemporary food processing technologies applied for development of variety of snacks, specialty and supplementary foods and offers advantages of preparation of ready-to-eat foods of desired shape, size, texture and sensory characteristics at very low processing cost. The extrusion process has a potential in generating quality snack products. The effect of extrusion variables on the properties of extrudates has been studied extensively. A good quality snack is the result of right combination of all the process parameters which needs to be studied and optimized. This neglected millet can be explored for value addition by extrusion cooking. Thus Sorghum millet-composite flour blend was extruded to investigate the effect of process