Impact of the whey protein/casein ratio on the reconstitution and flow properties of spray-dried dairy protein powders

Abstract

This study focuses on the impact of the whey protein/casein ratio (100/0, 79/21, 57/43, 35/65, and 12/88) on the physicochemical and functional characteristics of dairy protein powders. Spray-drying was performed in the following conditions: 200 °C inlet air temperature and 85 °C outlet air temperature. Physicochemical properties (particle size distribution, shape factors, moisture content, and water activity) of spray-dried powders were characterized to explain their reconstitutability, on the basis of the wettability, dispersibility, solubility indices, and their flowability, evaluated with the FT4 powder rheometer.Reconstitutability analyses revealed that solubility of dairy protein powders linearly varied with the whey protein/casein ratio. It was also highlighted that wettability and dispersibility determined with the standard methods were not relevant to evaluate the reconstitutability of investigated powders: in fact, all studied powders were non-wettable and non-dispersible according to the milk powder standards. This was likely to result from the low median particle size (between 10 and 30 μm) of powders produced by spray-drying at pilot-scale.The flowability of powders was evaluated as poor due to a high level of interparticular cohesion, which mainly derived from their small median particle size. The impact of protein composition on flowability was not statistically significant, despite a shape modification reflected by a decrease in particle sphericity upon casein proportion increase. The small particle size, leading to poor flow properties, overwhelmed the impact the whey protein/casein ratio, but a slight improvement of the flowability and a reduction of cohesion was induced by higher proportions of whey proteins.