# Fresh Broccoli in Fortified Snack Pellets: Extrusion-Cooking Aspects and Physical Characteristics
## 4 Conclusions  
The extrusion-cooking process was conducted as an integral part of the LIDER X project, Contract No. LIDER/29/0158/L-10/18/NCBR/2019: \"Development of a comprehensive technology of obtaining high-quality extruded snacks from plant and animal raw materials with a minimum degree of processing.\" The following conclusions were reached:  
1. Higher extrusion-cooking process efficiency was observed for all raw material mixtures with the fresh broccoli addition. The control samples without the addition of fresh broccoli, processed at the lowest extruder screw speed and at the highest moisture level, showed the lowest process efficiency values;
2. The addition of fresh broccoli to the potato-based snack pellets processed by extrusion-cooking resulted in relatively low energy consumption. The energy consumption of the extrusion-cooking process for the new generation of fortified snack pellets was influenced differently by the screw speed and moisture level. During the extrusion of mixtures with 20% fresh broccoli content, we observed an increase in SME value along with an increase in the moisture level of the raw material mixtures. The extrusion of pellets with 30% fresh broccoli was characterized by stable energy consumption during processing;
3. In general, the increasing amount of fresh broccoli added to the processed mixtures reduces the value of the expansion index of the obtained snack pellets. We noted higher values of the expansion index as the screw speed and moisture level increased;
4. The extruded blend moisture content and the extruder screw speed had a significant impact on the bulk density values. Snack pellets with the addition of fresh broccoli showed reduced bulk density values;
5. We noted that the addition of fresh broccoli alone had an impact on the durability of snack pellets. Such an addition allowed for lower values of the tested feature;
6. Summarizing all the extrusion-cooking aspects and physical characteristics tested, the most functional snack pellets were obtained from a potato-based composition with 20% fresh broccoli addition, processed with 32% of the initial moisture level at 80 rpm screw speed.  
Figure 3: Loading plot (**a**) and score plot (**b**) of the principal component analysis (PC1 and PC3) carried out for the addition of broccoli and tested parameters.  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.C.; methodology, M.C., M.M. ([PERSON]) and B.B.; software, M.G.; validation, R.R., M.M. ([PERSON]), M.C., A.W. and J.S.; formal analysis M.M. ([PERSON]), M.C., M.G. and A.W.; investigation, M.C., B.B., M.M. ([PERSON]), K.K. and J.S.; resources, M.C. and R.R.; data curation, R.R., M.M. ([PERSON]), M.C., K.K. and M.G.; writing--original draft preparation, M.C., M.M. ([PERSON]), B.B. and R.R.; writing--review and editing, M.C., A.W. and R.R; supervision, A.W. and R.R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
**Funding:** This research was funded by The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR), grant number LIDER/29/0158/L-10/18/NCBR/2019, entitled \"Development of a Comprehensive Technology of Obtaining High-Quality Extruded Snacks Based on Minimally Processed Vegetable and Animal Raw Materials\".  
**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** All the data are contained within the article.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.