Ingredient Development using a Pilot-Scale Tall-Form Spray Drier

Abstract

The main objectives of the project were to establish relationships between process variables and product physicochemical/functional characteristics in the course of processing and drying new dairy-based ingredients such as high-fat and protein-rich products in regular and agglomerated forms. By establishing processing protocols, R&D users of the ingredient drying facilities of Moorepark Technology Ltd may be able to predict the process variables necessary for desired end-product specifications to be achieved, and thus make experimentation more efficient and cost effective, as well as facilitate small scale production runs and sample preparation for market development purposes. Particular emphasis was placed on the development of high fat cream and fat-filled powders, flavour-delivery systems and protein-enriched ingredients. The major achievement of this project is that it is now possible to confidently select the appropriate processing conditions during the spray drying of ingredients in order to attain desired end-product specifications. Based on the use of the newly-installed Tall-form drier, the project succeeded in correlating the effects of process parameters of this technicallyadvanced pilot plant with the physicochemical properties of powders containing varying fat (20-80%) and protein contents. In general, the physicochemical characteristics of fat-filled and cream-filled powders with similar fat contents were similar except for higher solubility index values (range 0.1-0.6) in the case of the former particularly in the range 26-28% fat. Furthermore, the free fat content of powders may now be controlled much more precisely using an appropriate combination of total fat, atomiser nozzle selection and post-drying blending.