Influence of Anticaking Agents and Storage Conditions on Quality Characteristics of Spray Dried Apricot Powder: Shelf Life Prediction Studies Using Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer (GAB) Model

Abstract

Apricot powder was developed through spray drying using gum arabic as an encapsulating material at a concentration of 19%. Inlet air temperature, feed total soluble solids (TSS), feed flow rate, and atomization speed were 190 °C, 23.0 °C, 300.05 mL/h, and 17,433 rpm, respectively. This study was therefore conducted to investigate the influence of anticaking agents (tricalcium phosphate and silicon dioxide) and storage conditions (ambient and accelerated) on physicochemical, micrometric, and thermal characteristics of spray-dried apricot powder (SDAP) packaged in aluminum laminates. Both tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) improved the shelf life and quality of SDAP, with TCP being more effective, since a lower increase in water activity (aw), moisture content, degree of caking, hygroscopicity, and rehydration time was observed in TCP-treated samples followed by SiO2-treated samples than the control. Furthermore, flowability, glass transition temperature (Tg), and sticky-point temperature (Ts) of SDAP tended to decrease in a significant manner (p 2-treated samples under ambient and accelerated storage was 137 and 39 days, respectively, whereas the experimental values were 148 and 47 days, respectively. In conclusion, TCP proved more effective than SiO2 at preserving shelf life by preventing moisture ingress.

Keywords

• accelerated storage
• flowability
• glass transition temperature
• hygroscopicity