Experimental dataset on the characterization of a commercial liquid smoke flavoring, its microencapsulation by spray drying with whey protein isolate and maltodextrin, and on the characterization of the resulting spray-dried smoke powders

This dataset contains the raw data generated during the master’s research on the microencapsulation of liquid smoke by spray drying. The data are divided into three main parts: (1) characterization of the liquid smoke, encompassing volatile compounds analysis — with comprehensive GC-MS chromatographic fingerprints for global volatile profiling and targeted GC-FID chromatograms for estimating the area values of selected marker compounds — together with its physicochemical characterization; (2) microencapsulation process, with operating parameters and feed formulations, and mass balance of the process; and (3) characterization of the resulting microparticles, including moisture content, water activity, particle size distribution, morphology, and also GC-MS and GC-FID chromatograms. The dataset generally provides raw chromatograms (in PDF and instrument-native formats) and experimental spreadsheets, exported directly from the instruments/software without any post-processing. In cases where a file contains processed data, this is explicitly stated in its individual description.