Effect of Different Carrier Agents on Physicochemical Properties of Spray-dried Pineapple (Ananas comosus Merr.) Powder

The main purpose of this study is to examine the different physicochemical properties of spray-dried products. The carrier agents and powders after the spray-drying process were analyzed for encapsulation yield, moisture content, color parameters, total polyphenol content (TPC), antioxidant capacity (AC), bulk density, flowability, wettability, hygroscopicity, water solubility index (WSI), particle size and microstructure. The spray-drying process was carried out with different carrier agents including maltodextrin (MD) and the combination of maltodextrin and gum arabic (MD-GA) with MA/GA ratio of 70/30, dried at the inlet/outlet air temperature of 160 degrees C/70 degrees C, 4 bar, airflow rate of 70 m(3).h(-1) and feed flow rate of 750 mL.h(-1). The results showed that the different carrier agents have significant influences on the physicochemical properties of the powder produced by the spray-drying method. In there, while the values of recovery efficiency and flowability of spray-dried products from MD are higher than those of spray-dried products from MD-GA combination, the opposite is true for the values of TPC, AC, bulk density and wettability, whereas hygroscopicity and WSI values are equally represented in both products.