Development of Onion Powder by using Egg Albumin as a Foaming Agent by Foam-Mat Drying Process

Abstract

V egetables are one of the important part of our diet. Vegetables provide nutrient to support our daily life activities. Besides being a source of energy vegetables have many bioactive compound with potential to prevent human diseases. It is considered that those people who make the vegetables a chief part in their daily diet are less likely to be effected by any chronic disease. Human "well-being" is highly associated with diet which we consume. Now a day's lack of physical activity and high energy diet Abstract | Vegetables are very perishable agricultural produce with high amount of water content. Preservation by different means has been a keen interest of peoples to enhance the shelf life and to make sure the availability of these vegetables for longer period of time without quality deterioration. Drying is most common and old process for the preservation of foods which contain high moisture content. Onion powder was prepared by foam mat drying technique in which onion paste was treated with different concentration of egg albumin (0%, 4%, 8% and 12%) as foaming agent and Carboxyl methylcellulose (0.5%) as foam stabilizer and these were dried in hot air tray drier at different temperatures (55°C, 65°C and 75°C) with 3mm sheet thickness of onion foams. Effect of different concentration of foaming agent and drying temperature was studied on moisture and drying rate of onion paste. Increase in concentration of foaming agent significantly increased the drying rate from 0.422 ± 0.169 for (Control) to 0.743± 0.169 (egg albumin). Foamed onion paste were dried faster than un-foamed which decreased the drying time of 5 hours for foamed onion paste at 65°C and 75°C. Hence, foamed onion paste dried in 240 and 300 min at 65 °C and 75 °C temperature, respectively, with 12 % concentration of egg albumin.