Microencapsulation of honey as flavouring agent in milk powder

Honey is a natural product commonly used in milk powder for flavoring purposes. Currently, honey flavor is added to milk powder in powder form. This study aimed to investigate the effect of spray drying operating conditions on the quantity and quality parameters of the honey powder recovered. The influence of inlet air temperatures, feed flow rates, and type of microencapsulating agents upon the properties of obtained powders was examined. Spray drying of honey with the addition of maltodextrin DE 18 and 12 was carried out at inlet air temperatures of 150, 170, 190℃ and feed flow rates of 330 and 660 mL/h. The properties of the powders obtained were quantified in terms of moisture content (MC), hygroscopicity (HG) and color. Results of experiments showed higher inlet air temperature and lower feed flow rate led to a significant increase (p<0.05) in powder recovery. The total powder recoveries found in this study were between 39.42±2.35% to 71.92±4.17%, which indicates that this process has the potential to be applied on an industrial scale. The decrease in DE of maltodextrin promoted a higher powder recovery. Furthermore, it was found that the browning index increased with the decreasing inlet air temperature and increasing feed flow rate.