Production of spray-dried enzyme-liquefied papaya (Carica papaya L.) powder

Abstract Water removal during drying process consumes energy and lead to high production cost. Hence, enzymatic mash treatment was proposed to reduce the usage of water to produce feed concentration that is suitable for drying. In this study, papaya powder was prepared from papaya puree treated with 1.0% v/w of Pectinex® Ultra SP-L, a pectinase enzyme, with incubation under 50 °C up to 2 hours. The liquefied papaya puree was spray-dried at selected maltodextrin concentrations (10% to 50% w/w of papaya puree) and inlet temperatures (140 °C to 180 °C). The physico-chemical properties of papaya puree, spray-dried powder, and reconstituted powder were assessed. Results showed that an increase in maltodextrin concentration led to lower process yield, lower moisture content and hygroscopicity, and better solubility. The powder produced was brighter in colour (L*) and less yellowish (b*). The papaya puree added with 20% maltodextrin achieved the highest process yield (74.91% ± 9.15%) and better solubility (69.60 ± 0.48 s/g) with optimal moisture content (5.21% ± 0.15% dry basis) and hygroscopicity (24.79% ± 0.58%) which was selected as optimal concentration. Meanwhile, increasing spray drying inlet temperatures led to a reduction in moisture content (26%) but did not significantly affect (p > 0.05) water activity, hygroscopicity, bulk density and colour of spray-dried papaya powders. The inlet temperature of 150 °C achieved the highest solubility (48.17 ± 4.51 s/g) with moderate process yield (74.01% ± 7.69%) and moisture content (5.91% ± 0.70% dry basis) which was considered as optimal drying temperature. The reconstituted powder showed no significant effect in viscosity, pH, and colour regardless of the different maltodextrin concentrations and inlet temperatures used. The optimized spray powder showed no significant difference with initial spray drying feed in total soluble solids, pH, and b* value.