Research conducted within this doctoral thesis was focused on the production of a novel gluten-free food product based on rice flour with the addition of chicory root on a twin-screw extruder. As a part of this study, chicory root was implemented for the first time in snack puffed products as potential functional ingredient. Chicory root is one of the richest sources of inulin, a prebiotic component desirable in the diet of people with diabetes, but also many other bioactive components (sesquiterpene lactones, phenolic compounds, fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins, mi-nerals, etc.). The main goal of this doctoral thesis research was to define the optimal conditions of extrusion cooking process necessary to achieve the desired physical, textural, and potentially functional (inulin content and other bioactive compounds) characteristics of the final product.The results provide insight into the relationships that prevail between the set of process parameters (moisture content of the starting mixture, screw speed, and chicory root content) and physical, functional, textural, rheological and sensory characteristics of the final puffed snack products. Applying the optimal production conditions, which were defined using a genetic algo-rithm (16.3% moisture; 700 rpm and 30.0% chicory root), it was successfully generated a crispy snack product of attractive color, with a high content of inulin (5.36%). This justifies the use of chicory root in the development of new food products acceptable to consumers.Prediction of extrudates tested properties was performed using two mathematical models, which clearly provides insight into their applicability and effectiveness in this type of product. For this purpose, the Artificial neural network (ANN) was applied, as well as the new young methodology of Boosted regression trees (BRT), which is being used for the first time in food extrusion.One of the goals of the research was to develop a functional extruded snack product enriched with inulin within the literary recommended intake. Therefore, special attention was de-dicated to the optimization of the inulin extraction process, as well as for the development and validation of a sophisticated analytical method for its quantitative determination using high per-formance liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD). This method is applicable to commercially available products in the territory of the Re-public of Serbia that contain inulin (flips, coffee, dietary supplements with inulin).Innovative food products created within this dissertation can contribute to healthier consumer nutrition, enrich the current market range of snack products and promote the imple-mentation of chicory root in food products, considering that Serbia is one of the 10 largest world producers of this raw material.