Rheological Study of an Extruded Fish Diet with the Addition of Hydrolyzed Protein Flour

The extrusion of food for human and animal consumption is a unit operation that includes mixing, shearing, and force to the materials related to the rheological properties of the materials in the extruder. The present work aims to study the rheological behavior of an extruded fish diet incorporating hydrolyzed protein flour (HPF) processed by extrusion. The measurement was carried out online with a slit die rheometer, defining the rheological models and parameters that fit the process. During the extrusion process, the raw materials used were hydrolyzed protein flour, fish meal, and cassava starch. For the results, the evaluated treatments were adjusted to the Power Law, where an increase in the shear rate decreases the viscosity of the material, corresponding to a pseudoplastic behavior. The incorporation of hydrolyzed protein flour presented a significant effect on the value of n and Klp, increasing the viscosity with the increase in the percentage of inclusion of HPF. The models obtained for the prediction of the viscosity are adjusted to the system’s changes in shear rate, temperature, and humidity. The importance of the study lies in the fact that the diet developed can be applied to feed fish, and production is currently being scaled up to pilot plants for direct use by some producer communities.