Effect of tannia flour and moisture content on the quality of extruded ready-to-eat snack

Tannia (Xanthosoma sagittifolium), an underutilized tuber crop, possesses considerable nutritional potential and offers scope for its utilization in value-added food products. The present investigation was carried out at the Department of Postharvest Management, College of Horticulture, Bengaluru, during 2024–2025, with the objective of studying the effect of tannia flour concentration and feed moisture on the quality characteristics of an extruded ready-to-eat (RTE) snack. The experiment was conducted with tannia flour levels (50–80%) and feed moisture content (14–18%) were selected as independent variables. The extruded products were evaluated for quality parameters. Model fitting indicated that an optimized formulation consisting of 74.67 per cent tannia flour with 17.17 per cent feed moisture yielded desirable quality attributes, including protein (2.55%), fat (2.20%), starch (72.63%), crude fibre (3.05%), ash (2.43%), moisture content (3.35%), bulk density (0.14 g cm⁻³). Across treatments, increasing tannia concentration and feed moisture resulted in a significant increase in starch, fat, crude fibre, ash, moisture content and bulk density. Conversely, protein content exhibited a decreasing trend. Sensory evaluation using a 9-point hedonic scale revealed that moderate levels of tannia flour and feed moisture produced extrudates with superior overall acceptability.