Prebiotics as drying aids for spray drying fruit juices

Natural fruit juices are difficult to transform into powder because they are rich in sugars and acids with low glass transition temperatures, resulting in a sticky behaviour during spray drying. The present research work aimed to test the prebiotics maltodextrin and arabic gum as drying agents in order to be able to produce dehydrated powder from pineapple, strawberry and apple juices. 2 % of maltodextrin and an inlet air temperature of 130 °C are recommended to spray dry apple juice, reaching 60 % yield of powder with a water activity below 0.40. For strawberry juice, 2 % of this carrier is recommended and the inlet air temperature, 120 °C or 130 °C, did not seem relevant. For pineapple, neither the concentration of the carrier nor the inlet air temperature seemed to be relevant.