Stringy pillows give equipment supplier a good night's sleep

But now that consumers are looking for nutritional benefits, the equipment supplier is focusing on multi-grain and wholegrain snacks.

"Extrusion is often used in simple kids' products to make interesting shapes, such as Monster Munch snacks," says Graham. "The texture of such products doesn't necessarily appeal to adults. But there is no reason why extrusion can't be used to make more complex products."

The firm has used wholegrain and multigrain flour to create Stringy Pillows. Their stringy texture is created using a die - a mould that the product passes through continually. It is then formed into a tube when any filling can be squirted into the centre, before being formed into the final product shape.

"The filling is optional, as fillings often tend to be fat-based and work against the idea of a healthy snack," says Graham. "At the moment we are working on savoury fillings, but we will be looking at sweet and fat-free fillings in the future.

"We came up with concepts in the lab to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology, but companies are welcome to come forward with their own ideas," he says.

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