Microencapsulación de aceite de chía: comparación de rendimiento de sólidos y de propiedades fisicoquímicas de los productos obtenidos con tres equipos de secado por atomización.

Congreso; XIX Congreso Latinoamericano de Nutrición; 2021

Chia seed (Salvia hispanica L.) oil (CSO) is the major vegetable source of alpha-linolenicacid. However, CSO is highly susceptible to oxidation due to the unsaturated structure ofits fatty acids, which decreases the nutritional value of the foods and negatively impactstheir sensory properties. Hence, the protection of Omega-3-rich oils throughmicroencapsulation technologies is needed. The aim of this work was to compare the solidyield and the physico-chemical properties of the powders obtained with three differentspray dryers: a tall-form design (Büchi- B290) and two short-form dryers (Niro MobileMinor and Production Minor). Factorial experimental designs were carried out to analyzethe influence of the drying air inlet (or outlet) temperature and the volumetric feed rate.The highest solid yield values (between 70-80%) on a dry basis were observed for thelargest-scale dryer, i.e., the Production Minor. In addition, the products obtained with thelatter dryer showed the best flowing properties, which are important for food transportand packaging. The Carr's index (<25%) and the Hausner ratio (<1.25) might beattributed to the spherical morphology of the particles. Except for the Niro Mobile Minor,all the process conditions yielded whitish products with acceptable values of moisturecontent (2.44-4.46% dry basis), water activity (0.250-0.334), encapsulation efficiency(61.51-98.28%) and oxidative stability (4.25-6.52 h). Moreover, the oxidative deteriorationobserved for the microencapsulated CSO obtained with the Niro Mobile Minor might berelated to the local areas of counter-current flow between spray and air, which damagethe oil quality. Finally, it could be concluded the air disperser location has a great influenceon the quality of heat-sensitive ingredients, which ultimately affects the nutritional valueof functional foods prepared with the incorporation of microencapsulated CSO.