Patent ID: 6929813

Claim:
A method of making, within a puffing chamber having inner surfaces and a chamber volume, a puffed food starch material product from a bulk amount of food starch material, which food starch material is capable of volumetric expansion in three dimensions during puffing, namely width, depth and height, the method comprising: placing a bulk amount of food starch material into the puffing chamber, in a quantity that, upon puffing in the chamber, will form a single, unitary puffed food starch material product; and volumetrically expanding the bulk amount of food starch material placed in the chamber to form a single, unitary puffed food starch material product by constraining expansion of the bulk amount of food starch material in the chamber in at least a first dimension, while permitting unconstrained volumetric expansion of the bulk amount of food starch material in at least a second dimension to produce at least one surface in the unitary puffed food starch material product that has a wavy contour.