This book fills a need for a technological guide in a field that has experi enced an almost explosive increase in the last two decades. No other book available to food scientists provides detailed coverage of the ingredients, processes, products, and equipment of nearly every type of snack food made today. Since publication of the First Edition, many changes have occurred in the snack industry, making necessary a thorough revision of all chapters. The text, illustrations, and bibliographies have all been brought up-to-date. My goal has been to provide an accurate and reasona bly detailed description of every major snack processing method and prod uct current in the United States. If any reader believes I have omitted an important topic, I would be glad to learn ofit, in the hope that there will be a Third Edition in which I can incorporate the suggested additions. One of the main purposes of this volume is to provide a source for answers to problems that the technologist encounters in the course of his or her daily work. Extensive bibliographies, in which the emphasis is on recent publications (extending into 1983), should permit the reader to resolve more complex or new questions. With these bibliographies as guides, the food technologist can delve as deeply as he or she wishes into specialized aspects ofthe subject, while at the same time the reader who is interested in the broad overall picture will not be distracted by excess detail.