Spray Drying of Pequi Pulp: Process Performance and Physicochemical and Nutritional Properties of the Powdered Pulp

• Main Authors: Audirene Santana, Louise Kurozawa, Rafael Oliveira, Kil Park
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto de Tecnologia do Paraná (Tecpar) 2016-01-01
• Series: Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology
• Subjects: Fruit; Tween 80; powder property; screening design; microscopy
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-89132016000100500&lng=en&tlng=en

The objective of this work was to optimize the spray drying of pequi pulp using maltodextrin as carrier agent and Tween 80 as surfactant agent. A central composite rotatable design was used to evaluate the influence of inlet air temperature (140 to 200°C), maltodextrin (15 to 30%) and surfactant (0 to 5%) concentration on the process performance and physicochemical and nutritional properties of the dried powdered pulp. The dependent variables were process yield (27.4 - 51.7%), outlet air temperature (106.5 - 135°C), energetic efficiency (29.9 - 44.8%), moisture content (0.25 - 1.43%), water activity (0.09 to 0.21), hygroscopicity (9.1 - 12.1 g adsorbed moisture/100g dry matter), vitamin C content (129.8 - 303.0 mg/g solids pequi) and total carotenoids content (8.2 - 94.9 mg carotenoids/g solids pequi). The spray drying of pequi pulp was optimized for maximum vitamin C and total carotenoids content using response surface methodology, which were attained at 152°C, surfactant concentration of 1% and maltodextrin concentration of 18%. The characterization of the pequi pulp powder obtained at the optimized condition evaluating the particles sizes, bulk density and porosity. The morphology showed spherical and smooth particles with several sizes.