Abstract: Whey melon has conquered the Indian diet as a refreshment drink in terms of its acceptable flavor and energy benefits. Microencapsulation studies by spray drying were done with the objective of increasing the shelf stability of whey melon. Microencapsulation was done with whey melon as the core material and maltodextrin as the wall material. Initially, microencapsulated whey by spray drying was made at 20% and 25% levels of maltodextrin. This was done and optimized at drying air inlet temperature of 180ºC, pressure of 2 kg/cm2 and feed rpm of 2000. By sensory analysis, it was found that 25% levels of maltodextrin were optimized for microencapsulated spray dried whey. Emulsion characteristics were analyzed for physical parameters such as pH, acidity, re-dispersion time and total soluble salts which were 6.2, 14%,37 sec and 180Brix. The feasibility of spray dried whey led to further studies on microencapsulation of whey melon. Whey melon emulsion was made at maltodextrin, melon and sugar levels of 25%, 15% and 15% of the total volume of whey. The yield obtained was 250 g. Based on sensory analysis, sugar concentration of 15% and maltodextrin level of 25% were optimized for the production of microencapsulated whey melon by spray drying. The process parameters were optimized at 200ºC inlet air temperature and feed pump rpm of 1700. Proximate analysis was performed formed for standardized sample protein content was 3.9 g/100 g, vitamin C 12.8 mg/100 g, carbohydrate 89 g/100 g, energy 356 kcal ,ash 3.3%. Scanning electron microscopy was performed for the optimsed sample and particle size was found to be 37.5±5.6 µm. Microbial analysis was performed by TPC was found to be 1 x 103 cfu/ml, which was found to be within the acceptable limit.
Keywords: Spray drying; Microencapsulation, Wheymelon, Malto dextrin.
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