Experimental study on the impact of key material properties on flowability of sucrose and maltodextrin

Abstract

Flow performance of food powders is often neglected during product development but may end up being a major roadblock. Typically, dosing in vending machines or filling of jars can show significant variability if ingredients properties are not optimized. In this study, it is proposed to highlight the actionable parameters influencing the flowability performance of carbohydrates powders, leveraging various laboratory methods. First, for crystalline sucrose, it is shown that the flow quality is strongly deteriorated below a critical particle size and for larger particle size spans. For amorphous maltodextrin, the effect of moisture increase in the glassy and rubbery state is evaluated, and it is demonstrated how flowability is – as expected – deteriorated in the rubbery state, but more surprisingly already significantly impacted in the glassy state. The dominating mechanism for the glassy state remains to be identified (e.g. increase of some attractive forces or visco-elastic deformation with the moisture content increase).