With the recent expansion of our portfolio of fruit powders, it is worthwhile to revisit how the different drying technologies will impact the characteristics of the different fruit powders we offer our customers.
The most straight forward drying technology is vacuum drying which basically dehydrates the whole fruit, fruit pieces or even fruit juice by applying heat in a vacuum chamber/oven. The dried fruit can then be milled into a powder form. These products can be produced in a wide variety of granulometries, including flakes and coarse granules. We offer dried fruits in this category including goldenberry, lucuma, camu camu, among others.
Drum-drying is a technology that applies heat but not vacuum. A very thin film is formed in a pre-heated rotating drum and the fruity emulsion is converted into a very thin, dry layer that is scraped from the drum. These scraped flakes can be milled into different particle sizes yielding different product solubility/dispersibility profiles. Drum-drying is very suitable for fat-rich and other products that do not work very well with spray-drying. We offer some drum-dried powders from açai, banana and mango.
Spray-drying is the process in which the fruit juice/extract is transformed into a dry powder in a single step. The slurry liquid (fruit juice and process adjuvants/excipients) is pumped as micro-droplets into a drying chamber with a controlled flow of hot air and vacuum. That product is a very fine powder that is sieved through a metallic grid with moisture content of around only 3%. Spray-drying is generally an economical process because of its continuous nature and higher throughput due to very high working temperatures. These temperatures may pose a problem depending on the product, as some nutrients might be partially degraded in the process. We offer several spray-dried fruit powders, including açai, acerola, coconut water, pineapple, strawberry, orange, lemon, among many others. All these products can be used to add natural flavors and colors to product formulations.
Finally, freeze-drying is a dehydration technology that consists of removing water from the fruit juice/extract through the sublimation process, that is, the direct transition from the solid phase to the gaseous phase, without passing through the liquid phase. The technique does not require heating, and product temperatures in freeze-drying are below 32°F in the primary sublimation phase. Freeze-dried fruit powders can be obtained without any added product adjuvants/excipients, hence, are very suitable for clean label formulations of food and beverages. We offer several fruit powders in this category, such as açai, acerola, banana, coconut water, pineapple, among others.
As you can see, we offer fruit powders obtained through several drying technologies. The different technologies, when used for the same juice, will yield fruit powders with different solubility, dispersibility, color, flavor and even nutritional profile. We always strive to meet the performance and cost expectations of our customers, and we are very well positioned to address any product requirement that your formulation has. Contact one of our consultants today to learn more and discuss the best options for your formulations and products.
