METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TEXTURIZING PROTEINACEOUS RAW MATERIAL WITH HIGH MOISTURE CONTENT

摘要

PURPOSE:To regulate the raw material pressure at the tip of an extruder and readily enable texturizing of even a proteinaceous raw material with a high moisture content by enabling the regulation of the cross-sectional area in a raw material passage in texturizing the proteinaceous raw material using a twin-screw extruder. CONSTITUTION:A proteinaceous raw material with a high moisture content is charged into a barrel 2 of a twin-screw extruder 4, kneaded and conveyed with screws 3. The raw material pressure is subsequently sensed with a pressure gauge 11 provided at the tip of the extruder 4 and a valve stem 8 is rotated according to sensed vales and advanced or retreated relatively to a valve seat 15. Thereby, the size of a gap between the inner end face (8b) of the valve stem 8 and the valve seat 15 is changed. Thereby, since resistance of the raw material passing through the gap is changed, the raw material pressure in an inlet part (10a) of the raw material is changed. when the raw material pressure attains a prescribed value, the rotation of the valve stem 8 is stopped to continue operation of the extruder 4. The kneaded proteinaceous raw material is then passed through a cooling die 20 and extrusion formed while being cooled to texturize the raw material.