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Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 3542

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

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Optimization of process variables for the preparation of expanded

nger millet using response surface methodology
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S.R. Ushakumari a, N.K. Rastogi b, N.G. Malleshi a,*

Department of Grain Science and Technology, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore 570 020, Karnataka, India
b
Department of Food Engineering, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore 570 020, Karnataka, India

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Received 15 June 2006; received in revised form 20 January 2007; accepted 23 January 2007
Available online 4 February 2007

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Abstract

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The decorticated nger millet was subjected to high temperature short time treatment to prepare expanded millet, a ready-to-eat new
generation product. It was observed that, attening the grains to the desired shape factor and the moisture content were critical factors
for obtaining the millet with maximum expansion ratio. Accordingly, the eect of moisture content of the millet prior to attening, the
shape factor and drying time and their complex interaction on the expansion ratio of the millet were determined. Besides, the bulk density, sphericity, hardness and overall acceptability of the expanded millet were also evaluated using a central composite rotatable experimental design. Based on the design, the optimal conditions for obtaining fully expanded millet were, moisture content of about 40%
prior to attening, shape factor ranging from 0.52 to 0.58 and drying time varying from 136 to 150 min. The product prepared under
these conditions had an expansion ratio (Y1) P 4.6, bulk density (Y2) 6 0.17 g/cm3, sphericity (Y3) P 0.90, hardness/texture
(Y4) 6 5.0 N and the overall acceptability (Y5) P 7.2.
2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Decorticated nger millet; Expanded millet; Expansion ratio; Shape factor; Central composite rotatable design

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1. Introduction

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Popping or preparation of expanded cereals and grain

legumes is one of the traditional food processing methodologies followed to prepare ready-to-eat light and crisp products. While popcorn is very popular world wide, expanded
rice is a highly sought product in the Indian subcontinent
(Chandrasekhar & Chattopadhyay, 1990; Sabri Gokmen,
2004). Preparation of both popped and expanded products
involves high temperature short time treatment to grains,
but the former utilizes the whole kernels and the latter generally makes use of hydrothermally processed and decorticated
grains. While considerable information is available on popping of cereals (Malleshi & Desikachar, 1981; Suhasini &
Malleshi, 1994) and legumes (Pratape & Kurien, 1986), the
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 821 2510843; fax: +91 821 2517233.
E-mail addresses: malleshi@yahoo.com, gst@cftri.res.in (N.G. Malleshi).
0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.01.012

information on expanded cereals is largely conned to rice

only (Chinnaswamy & Bhattacharya, 1983). Expansion
ratio, the most important quality characteristics of popped
cereals, depends not only on the starch content but also on
its composition. Generally the amylose content of the cereals
and also the nature of processing, particularly the parboiling
conditions, inuence their expansion characteristics (Jha &
Prasad, 1996; Payne, Taraba, & Saputra, 1989).
Finger millet (Eluesine coracana) is one of the important
minor cereals in the Indian subcontinent as well as in some
of the African countries. It is a rich source of calcium and
dietary ber, and is known for its health benets (Barbeau
& Hilu, 1993; Malleshi, 2005). The endosperm of the millet
is of highly oury texture and is not conductive for decortication and hence, it is normally pulverized and the whole
meal is used for food preparations. But, very recently a
process for preparation of decorticated millet has been
developed which enables cooking the millet similar to rice
(Malleshi, 2003; Shobana & Malleshi, 2007). Since, it was

36

S.R. Ushakumari et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 3542

to 0.02 mm accuracy and the b/a ratio is referred as shape

factor. An average value of the shape factor for 10 grains
was used for the RSM. The attened grains were spread in
a single layer and dried to dierent moisture levels in an air
drier maintained at 42 2 C. These samples were used for
preparation of expanded grains.
Preliminary experiments on the inuence of the temperature of heat transfer media on the expansion characteristics of the millet using ne salt indicated that salt heated at
220 5 C (material to salt ratio 1:4) was most suitable for
inducing expansion of the millet to its maximum possible
volume. The samples taken in a wire mesh cone were agitated in the salt maintained at 220 5 C for about 6 s
to facilitate expansion and soon after that the material
was separated from the salt by sieving. At each level of
the moisture content, the shape factor and the drying time,
a minimum of three independent determinations were carried out and the average value was used for the experimental design. The owchart (Fig. 1) depicts various steps
followed for preparation of the expanded millet.

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of interest to examine its potential for dierent food products, exploratory studies on its expansion characteristics
were conducted and it was observed that, the decorticated
millet could be readily used for the preparation of
expanded millet (Malleshi & Ushakumari, 2004). However,
it was observed that, attening the decorticated millet to
near ellipsoid by a mild mechanical impact improves the
expansion capability of the grains and also the moisture
content of the kernels prior to attening and prior to
expansion inuences the expansion ratio. Since, expansion
ratio of the product is the main determinant of its food and
market value, the process parameters, namely, moisture
content of the millet before attening, shape factor and
also the moisture content before expansion, on the expansion characteristics of the millet were determined. For this
purpose, response surface methodology (RSM), using a
Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) to t a second order polynomial by a least square technique was utilized (Hunter, 1959; Rastogi, Rajesh, & Shamala, 1998).
2. Material and methods

A central composite rotatable design (CCRD) with three

variables was followed to examine the response pattern and
also to determine the optimum synergy of variables (Cochran & Cox, 1957). The variables and their optimized ranges

2.2. Preparation of decorticated millet

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Finger millet (variety, GPU 28) was procured from the

University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore, India and
its moisture content (AACC, 2000), the bulk density and
the kernel diameter were determined (Chinnaswamy &
Bhattacharya, 1983).

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2.4. Experimental design

2.1. Material

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The pericarp (glumes) covering the kernels was separated (deglumed) in a Engleburg huller (Sri Ganesha Engineering Works, Chennai, India) and the same was used for
the preparation of expanded millet. It was soaked in water
maintained at 68 2 C for 4 h, excess water was drained
o and the material was steamed at atmospheric pressure
(98 1 C) for 30 min and dried in an air drier at
38 1 C to 15 1% moisture content. The dried material
was decorticated in a horizontal corborandum disc mill as
per Shobana and Malleshi (2007), and the decorticated millet was used to study the expansion characteristics.

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2.3. Preparation of the expanded millet

A known weight of the decorticated millet placed in different glass containers and then individually sprayed with
4, 10, 21, 35 and 46 ml of additional water to raise the
moisture content of the samples from 15% to 40% and left
for equilibration for about 12 h with occasional mixing.
Followed by that, the samples were passed through a
heavy-duty roller aker (Aktiebolsget, Malmo, Germany)
to atten the grains to dierent degree of thickness. The
shape of the attened grains was quantied by measuring
the three main axes, a, b and c, perpendicular to each
other, using a dial calipers (Model 537, Mitutoyo, Japan)

Native finger millet

Degluming
Soaking in water
(68+2 oC, 4 h)
Steaming
(98+1 oC, 30 min)
Hot air drying
(up to 15% moisture content)
Decortication in disc mill
Tempering
(12 h)
Mechanical impact
(Roller flaker)
Drying
(42+2 oC)
HTST treatment in salt medium
(220+5 oC, 6 s)
Expanded finger millet

Fig. 1. Flow chart for the preparation of expanded nger millet.

S.R. Ushakumari et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 3542

were, moisture content of 1540%, shape factor of 0.31.0

and drying time of 0150 min, each at ve levels, namely,
1.682; 1; 0; 1 and 1.682. The treatment schedule for
CCRD shown in Table 1 was arranged for tting an appropriate regression model using multiple regression program.
The CCRD combines the vertices of the hypercubes whose
co-ordinates are given by a 2n factorial design for the calculation of curvature of the model (Joglekar & May, 1987).
Six replicates (treatments 1520) at the center of the design
were used for estimation of error sum of squares. Experiments were randomized in order to maximize the eects
of unexplained variability in the observed responses due
to extraneous factors.

sults were compared with predictions as per the model.

To visualize the relationship between the responses and
experimental levels for each of the factors and also to deduce the optimum conditions, the tted polynomial equation was expressed as both surface and contour plots.

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2.6. Expansion ratio and bulk density

2.7. Sphericity
A second order polynomial equation was used to t the
experimental data given in Table 1. The model proposed
for the response (Yi) was,

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The sphericity (/) of the expanded millet was calculated

following the equation (Dursun & Dursun, 2005; Mohsenin, 1970)
/

where a is the longest intercept, b the longest intercept normal to a, and c is the longest intercept normal to a and b.
The average of 10 independent determinations of sphericity was reported.

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where Yi (i = 15) is the predicted response for expansion

ratio (Y1), bulk density (Y2), sphericity (Y3), texture (Y4)
and overall acceptability (Y5), a0 is the value of the tted
response at the center point of the design, ai, aii, aij being
the linear, quadratic, and cross product terms, respectively
and e is the random error. In order to deduce workable
optimum conditions, a graphical technique was used (Floros & Chinnan, 1988; Giovanni, 1983). For this purpose,
the optimum conditions for one of the variables was xed,
and the same was veried by conducting the experiment at
that condition. The responses were monitored and the re-

abc1=3
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Y i a0 a1 X 1 a2 X 2 a3 X 3 a11 X 21 a22 X 22
1

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The expansion ratio was determined by recording the

ratio of the volume of expanded millet to that of decorticated millet of equal weight, where as the apparent bulk
density of the expanded millet was determined by measuring the volume of known weight of expanded millet (Chinnaswamy & Bhattacharya, 1983).

2.5. Statistical analysis

a33 X 23 a12 X 1 X 2 a13 X 1 X 3 a23 X 2 X 3 e

37

2.8. Hardness
The hardness of the expanded millet was measured using
the universal texture analyzer (Stable Microsystems, Model
TA-HDi, Surrey, UK). For this purpose the maximum

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Table 1
Treatment schedule for ve-factor CCRD and responses
Moisture content
(%, X1)

Shape factor
(X2)

Drying time
(min, X3)

Expansion ratio
(Y1)

Bulk density
(g/cm3, Y2)

Sphericity
(Y3)

Texture
(N,Y4)

Overall
acceptability (Y5)

20.07 (1)
34.93 (+1)
20.07 (1)
34.93 (+1)
20.07 (1)
34.93 (+1)
20.07 (1)
34.93 (+1)
15.0 (1.682)
40.0 (+1.682)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)
27.50 (0)

0.44
0.44
0.86
0.86
0.44
0.44
0.86
0.86
0.65
0.65
0.30
1.00
0.65
0.65
0.65
0.65
0.65
0.65
0.65
0.65

30.41 (1)
30.41 (1)
30.41 (1)
30.41 (1)
119.59 (+1)
119.59 (+1)
119.59 (+1)
119.59 (+1)
75 (0)
75 (0)
75 (0)
75 (0)
0 (1.682)
150 (1.682)
75 (0)
75 (0)
75 (0)
75 (0)
75 (0)
75 (0)

3.330
3.560
3.042
2.100
3.268
4.486
3.349
4.252
3.227
3.463
4.496
2.800
2.200
3.628
3.737
3.713
3.639
3.596
3.710
3.741

0.231
0.230
0.290
0.327
0.235
0.171
0.230
0.199
0.238
0.222
0.171
0.298
0.350
0.212
0.206
0.207
0.211
0.214
0.207
0.206

0.863
0.900
0.952
0.920
0.898
0.904
0.930
0.960
0.916
0.915
0.840
0.960
0.949
0.935
0.955
0.955
0.953
0.967
0.956
0.967

19.08
18.21
26.29
30.16
27.87
7.13
20.28
11.69
22.87
17.45
19.97
28.04
32.91
13.2
13.42
13.52
13.96
14.15
13.8
13.5

5.430
4.860
5.380
1.800
3.630
6.630
5.890
6.000
6.330
4.500
6.750
4.000
2.970
6.000
6.000
5.400
5.500
5.300
5.400
5.400

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(1)
(1)
(+1)
(+1)
(1)
(1)
(+1)
(+1)
(0)
(0)
(1.682)
(+1.682)
(0)
(0)
(0)
(0)
(0)
(0)
(0)
(0)

The coded values are indicated in the parenthesis.

38

S.R. Ushakumari et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 3542

3.1. Diagnostic checking of the models

force required to cause 80% compression of the product

was recorded at a crosshead speed of 100 mm/min with
50 kg load cell. The peak force needed to compress the
samples was referred as a measure of hardness and an average for 10 replicates was reported.

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2.9. Sensory analysis

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The appearance, colour, texture, taste and overall quality of the expanded millet were evaluated by a trained panel
of 10 members on a nine point hedonic scale, ranking 1 for
dislike extremely and 9 for like extremely (Watts, Ylimaki, Jeery, & Elias, 1989). The average and the mean
values of the scores for each of the attributes were computed and analyzed statistically (Snedecor & Cochran,
1962).

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3. Results and discussion

The diameter, sphericity and bulk density of the decorticated millet used for the studies were 1.53 0.3 mm,
0.98 0.2 and 0.796 0.05 g/ml, respectively, at 10.5
0.2% moisture content.

Five responses, namely, expansion ratio (Y1), bulk density (Y2), sphericity (Y3), texture (Y4) and overall acceptability (Y5), which describe the quality characteristics of
the expanded millet, were measured. The coecients for
the actual functional relations for predicting Yi are presented in Table 2. The non-signicant terms from the
model were omitted based on Students t-ratio (Khuri &
Cornell, 1987) and the polynomial was recalculated and
reported with the recalculated coecient of determination
(R2). All the ve responses under dierent combinations
as dened in the design (Table 1) were analyzed using the
analysis of variance (ANOVA) appropriate to the experimental design. The ANOVA for the data obtained using
CCRD presented in Table 3, indicates that, the sum of
squares due to regression (rst and second order terms)
was signicant. However, the lack of t was not signicant
for the expansion ratio as well as for the sphericity and also
for the overall acceptability, but it was signicant for bulk
density and texture. The high values of coecient of determination (R2) also suggest that the model is a good t. R2 is
the proportion of variability in response values explained

R2 values
*
**

Bulk density (g/cm3,Y2)

Original
equation

Recalculated
equation

Original
equation

3.685
0.132*
0.348**
0.419**
0.091
0.016
0.244**
0.186*
0.354**
0.199*

3.628
0.132
0.348
0.419

0.209
0.006
0.029**
0.035**
0.005
0.007
0.023**
0.009
0.016**
0.017**

0.237
0.186
0.354
0.199

0.938

0.920

Signicant at 5% level.
Signicant at 1% level.

0.960

Sphericity (Y3)

Texture (N,Y4)

Overall acceptability (Y5)

Original
equation

Original
equation

Recalculated
equation

Original
equation

0.959
0.003
0.029**
0.002
0.015**
0.021**
0.006
0.006
0.004
0.003

13.816
2.595**
2.175**
4.387**
1.675*
3.034**
2.698**
2.111*
4.041**
2.774*

13.816
2.595
2.175
4.387
1.675
3.034
2.698
2.111
4.041
2.774

5.504
0.302
0.447**
0.716**
0.054
0.068
0.383*
0.738**
0.908**
0.593**

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Recalculated
equation
0.218

0.029
0.035

0.022

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a0
a1
a2
a3
a11
a22
a33
a12
a13
a23

Expansion ratio (Y1)

0.016
0.017
0.911

0.910

Recalculated
equation
0.954
0.029
0.015
0.020

0.855

0.933

0.933

0.912

Recalculated
equation
5.412
0.447
0.716

0.372
0.738
0.907
0.593
0.866

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Coecients

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Table 2
Estimated coecients of the tted second order polynomial representing the relationship between the responses and the process variables

Table 3
Analysis of variance for the tted second order polynomial model as per CCRD

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Sum of squares

Expansion ratio (Y1)

Bulk density (g/cm3,Y2)

Sphericity (Y3)

Texture (N,Y4)

Overall acceptability (Y5)

3
6
9

4.292a
2.550a
6.842

0.028a
0.013a
0.041

0.012a
0.009a
0.021

419.485a
463.855a
883.340

10.969a
15.878a
26.847

Residual
Lack of t
Pure error
Total error

5
5
10

0.431b
0.017
0.448

0.0019a
5.64  105
0.002

0.0018b
0.0002
0.002

63.389a
0.478
63.867

2.268b
0.320
2.588

Grand total

19

7.290

0.043

0.024

df

Regression
First order terms
Second order terms
Total

a
b

Signicant at p 6 0.001.
Not signicant at p 6 0.001.

947.207

29.435

S.R. Ushakumari et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 3542

But, the drying time exhibited negative (p 6 0.01) linear

eect and positive quadratic eect (p 6 0.01) on bulk density. This caused a curvilinear decrease with an increase in
the drying time for all the levels of shape factor (0.31.0,
coded value from 1.68 to 1.68, Fig. 2b). The interaction
term of shape factor and bulk density was also signicant
(Table 2). The bulk density of the expanded millet was
higher at lower levels of drying time (0 min, coded level
1.68) when compared to that of higher levels of drying
time (150 min, coded level +1.68). The expanded millet
with lowest bulk density (0.15 g/cm3) was obtained from
the sample dried to 107 min (coded value 0.74), which
had a shape factor of 0.3 (coded value 1.68) (Fig. 2b).

or accounted for, by the model (Montgomery, 1984;

Myers, 1971).
3.2. Response surface plotting

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The eect of moisture content, shape factor and drying

time on the responses, namely, expansion ratio, bulk density, sphericity, hardness and overall acceptability are presented by the coecients of second order polynomials
(Table 2). A few response surfaces based on these coecients are also shown in Fig. 2af. The response surfaces
were selected based on the signicant interaction terms
between the two variables within the experimental range
as indicated in Table 2. Based on the observations of the
data as well as the individual responses optimized, the
moisture content of the kernels prior to attening was kept
at the highest level (40%, coded value +1.68) of the design.

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3.2.3. Eect of shape factor and drying time on sphericity

The sphericity of the samples varied from 0.840 to 0.967
for all the levels of drying time (0150, coded value from
1.68 to 1.68) and increased concurrently with increase
in shape factor up to 0.967 and there after its increase
was marginal (Fig. 2c). This eect could be due to the presence of a positive linear term (p 6 0.01) and negative quadratic term (p 6 0.01) of shape factor (Table 2). Similarly,
for all the levels of shape factor (0.31.0, coded value from
1.68 to 1.68), there was no signicant increase in sphericity with an increase in drying time due to the absence of signicant linear and quadratic eects (Table 2). The highest
sphericity value of 0.93 was obtained for the sample with
drying time of 103 min (coded value 0.63) and shape factor
of 0.74 (coded value 0.43) (Fig. 2c).

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3.2.1. Eect of shape factor and drying time on expansion

ratio
The expansion ratio was found to be a function of linear
eect of shape factor. There was a decrease in expansion
ratio from 4.496 to 2.1, with an increase in the levels of
shape factor from 0.3 to 0.85 for all drying times. This is
also indicated by the negative linear eect (p 6 0.01). The
lowest value for shape factor, namely 0.3 was xed, since
the samples with shape factor lower than 0.3 were highly
attened, resembling akes. The drying time also exhibited
a prominent eect on expansion ratio. The linear eect of
drying time on expansion ratio was positive (p 6 0.01)
but the quadratic eect (p 6 0.01) was negative. This indicates a curvilinear increase in expansion ratio with the drying time for all the levels of shape factor (Fig. 2a). Drying
of the attened millet was carried out at 42 3 C to avoid
formation of ssures in the grains, which other wise aects
the expansion characteristics (Henderson, 1954).
It is interesting to note that the interaction between the
drying time and the shape factor was also signicant (Table
2). For all the values of shape factor (0.31.0, coded values
from 1.68 to +1.68), the expansion ratio increased progressively with drying time. On the other hand, at the lowest drying time (0 min, coded value 1.68), the expansion
ratio increased with an increase in shape factor whereas
at the highest drying time (150 min, coded value +1.68),
it decreased with an increase in shape factor (Fig. 2a).
However, at the optimum levels of moisture content
(40%) and drying time (137 min, coded value 1.39) and at
the specic shape factor (0.3, coded value 1.68), the
expansion ratio was maximum (5.28).

39

3.2.2. Eect of shape factor and drying time on bulk density

The apparent bulk density of the expanded samples
exhibited positive linear eect with shape factor
(p 6 0.01). However, its quadratic eect was not signicant
(Table 2) because there was an increase in bulk density concurrent to an increase in shape factor at all the level of drying time (0150, coded value from 1.68 to 1.68, Fig. 2b).

3.2.4. Eect of shape factor and drying time on texture

The hardness of the samples, which varied from 7.13 to
32.91 N, was found to be a function of the linear and quadratic eects of drying time. The linear eect (p 6 0.01) was
negative, whereas the quadratic eect (p 6 0.01) was positive (Table 2), which resulted in a parabolic decrease in
hardness for all the levels of shape factor (0.31.0, coded
value from 1.68 to 1.68, Fig. 2d). The hardness showed
signicant positive linear (p 6 0.01) as well as quadratic
(p 6 0.01) eects on the shape factor (Table 2), hence, the
overall eect was curvilinear in nature (Fig. 2d). At the
lowest level of drying time (0 min, coded value 1.68),
the hardness increased with an increase in the shape factor
whereas, it remained nearly constant at the maximum level
of drying time (150 min, coded level +1.68). The interaction term for shape factor and drying time was also significant (p 6 0.05). The sample with least hardness (2.92 N)
was obtained from the millet dried for 150 min (coded
value +1.68) and attened to the shape factor 0.84 (coded
value 0.18) (Fig. 2d).
3.2.5. Eect of shape factor and drying time on the overall
acceptability
The overall acceptability of the expanded millet ranged
from 1.8 to 6.75 and was inversely related with the levels
of shape factor. The linear eect of shape factor
(p 6 0.01) was negative and the quadratic eect was not

40

S.R. Ushakumari et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 3542

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Fig. 2. Response surfaces showing the eect of shape factor and drying time on (a) expansion ratio; (b) bulk density; (c) sphericity; (d) overall
acceptability; (e) hardness. For all the experiments moisture content was constant at 40%. Levels are as shown in Table 1.

signicant. But, the drying time exhibited positive linear

eect (p 6 0.01) and negative quadratic eect (p 6 0.05),
resulting in a curvilinear increase in overall acceptability

with the drying time for all the levels of shape factor
(Fig. 2e). The interaction term of shape factor and drying
time was found to be signicant (p 6 0.05, Table 2). The

S.R. Ushakumari et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 3542

(Y1) P 4.6, bulk density (Y2) 6 0.17 g/cm3, sphericity

(Y3) P 0.90, hardness (Y4) 6 5.0 N and overall acceptability (Y5) P 7.2. The contour plots were superimposed and
the regions that best satised with compromised values
for the responses were selected as the optimum conditions
(Fig. 3) and based on that, a combination of optimum
working conditions (A, B, C and D) were identied from
the shaded area presented in Table 4. The overlapped area
between the horizontal and vertical bars shown in Fig. 3
could be recommended as practical optimum zone for
shape factor (0.520.58, coded level 0.32 to 0.64) and
drying time (135.7150 min, coded level 1.211.68).

maximum score for the overall quality (9.00) was obtained

for the sample with a drying time of 150 min (coded value
+1.68) and lowest level (0.3) of shape factor (coded value
1.68) (Fig. 2e).
3.3. Optimization

co

py

In order to deduce workable optimum conditions, the

graphical optimization technique was adopted by xing
one variable, namely, the initial moisture content to 40%.
This drastically reduces the amount of time required for
investigation of multifactor and the multi-response systems. It also provides comprehensive and informative
insight of the system, which leads to optimization of the
process rapidly. Although, the specications necessary for
each of the responses were set (Floros & Chinnan, 1988),
an acceptable compromise was made within the variables
to obtain the optimum values for the expansion ratio

3.4. Verication of results

(A)

(B)

Hardness 5.0 N

rs

0.00
-0.42

Overall quality 7.2

Expansion ratio 4.6

0.42

pe

Drying
Dryingtime
time

0.84

on

(C)

1.26

al

The suitability of the model developed for predicting the

optimum response values was tested using the recommended optimum conditions of the variables and was also

(D)

1.68

41

Bulk density 0.17

-0.84

Sphericity 0.90

r's

-1.26
-1.68
-1.68

-1.26

-0.84

-0.42

0.00

0.42

0.84

1.26

1.68

Shape factor

th
o

Fig. 3. Superimposed contour plots showing the shaded overlapping area for which expansion ratio P4.6, bulk density 60.17, sphericity P0.90.

Au

Table 4
Feasible and optimum conditions and also predicted (Pred.) and experimental (Exp.) values of the responses at optimum conditions
Optimum condition

Conditions A

Conditions B

Conditions C

Conditions D

Coded

Actual

Coded

Actual

Coded

Actual

Coded

Actual

Moisture (X1, %)
Shape factor (X2)
Drying time (X3, min)

1.68
0.70
1.09

40
0.50
126.57

1.68
0.47
1.01

40
0.55
120.49

1.68
0.10
1.34

40
0.63
144.78

1.68
0.45
1.68

40
0.55
170.59

Responses

Pred. value

Exp. valuea

Pred. value

Exp. valuea

Pred. value

Exp. valuea

Pred. value

Exp. valuea

Expansion ratio (Y1)

Bulk density (Y2, g/cm3)
Sphericity (Y3)
Hardness (Y4, N)
Overall acceptability (Y5)

4.78
0.16
0.90
4.79
7.53

4.70
0.15
0.91
4.50
7.40

4.64
0.16
0.91
4.93
7.21

4.55
0.15
0.90
4.85
7.12

4.61
0.17
0.92
3.89
7.25

4.58
0.16
0.91
3.79
7.15

4.82
0.17
0.91
3.15
7.83

4.77
0.16
0.90
3.25
7.60

Mean value of ve determinations, Conditions A, B, C, D and E have been indicated in Fig. 3.

42

S.R. Ushakumari et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 82 (2007) 3542

al

on

rs

Acknowledgement

co

4. Conclusion
Exploration of the response surfaces to optimize the
parameters inuencing the expansion of decorticated nger
millet were carried out and it was found that there exists a
complex interaction between the variables such as moisture
content, drying time and shape factor. The optimum conditions for preparing a product with highest expansion ratio
were found to be about 40% moisture content prior to attening, shape factor ranging from 0.52 to 0.58 and drying
time varying from 136 to 150 min. The expanded millet
obtained following these conditions will have expansion
ratio P4.6 with bulk density 60.17 g/cm3, sphericity
P0.90, hardness/texture 65.0 N and overall acceptability
P7.2.

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py

used to validate experimental and predicted values of the

responses. The moisture content of about 40% prior to attening, shape factor ranging from 0.52 to 0.58 and drying
time varying from 136 to 150 min could be considered as
optimum as well as feasible conditions for the variables
studied to prepare the expanded millet of suitable quality
characteristics (Table 4).

pe

Thanks are due to Dr. Ravi, for the help towards the
measurement of the texture and to Mr. Jayaprakashan,
for the assistance in the attening experiments. The nancial support from ICAR, New Delhi, under AICRP on
Small Millets, for under taking this work is gratefully
acknowledged.
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