AGREGANDO VALOR A LAS FRUTAS DEL CERRADO BRASILEÑO: ENCAPSULACIÓN DE ACEITE DE PEQUI A TRAVÉS DEL SECADO POR ATOMIZACIÓN

The pequi oil is a nutritionally rich product and the purpose of the encapsulation using spray drying is extending it shelf life and making it easier to handle. The aim of this work was to characterize physically, chemically and morphologically the pequi oil microparticles produced by spray drying. It was used an emulsion 10 % (w/w) and a wall system mixture of 25/50/25 consisted by gum arabic, modified starch and maltodextrin, respectively. The drying conditions were: 180 and 105 °C as inlet and outlet air temperature, respectively, and a double peak fluid atomization system with feed rate at 0.96 L.h-1. The results of the process show a 36 % of microencapsulation efficiency, spherical particles, smooth, and invaginations, high polydispersity as a function of size and a tendency of agglomerations of the particles. The product shows a great solubility (approximately 79.38%), a low wettability (approximately 954s), and it luminosity is close to the white and tends to red and yellow.