Effects of Wall Materials and Operating Parameters on Physicochemical Properties, Process Efficiency, and Total Carotenoid Content of Microencapsulated Banana Passionfruit Pulp (Passiflora tripartita var. mollissima) by Spray-Drying

Abstract

Banana passionfruit is an edible fruit widespread in the Andean highlands of Colombia and Ecuador, which has a high content of carotenoids. The microencapsulation process is used to improve the stability of this bioactive compound. The encapsulation agents, core/wall material ratio, and operational parameters influence the efficiency of the process. In this study, Maltodextrin (MD) and Gum Arabic (GA) were used as wall materials to assess the influence of inlet temperature and different MD:GA and core/encapsulating material (Core:EM) ratios on moisture, water activity, color, particle size, process yield (PY), encapsulation efficiency (EE), and total carotenoid content (TCC) of microencapsulated banana passionfruit pulp (MBP) by spray-drying. The lowest moisture (1.12 ± 0.01%) of MBP was at a temperature of 150 °C; the water activity (Aw) for all samples was less than 0.4, and the Hue angle indicated a coloration between orange and yellow. The increase in temperature produced an increase in the particle size. However, the MBP showed a uniform particle diameter (1.25 ± 0.21 μm). The treatment T2A1B2 (T = 150 °C, Core:EM = 1:1, MD:GA = 4:6) showed the highest EE (50.79 ± 0.29%) and the best PY (60.84 ± 0.07%). The stability of MBP was carried out at temperatures of 4, 20, and 40 °C. The predicted shelf life can be up to 215 days on storage at 4 °C. The encapsulation improved the stability of TCC in banana passionfruit pulp. Therefore, the MBP can be considered as a potential ingredient for use in functional beverages.