Optimization of Drying Parameters in the Production of Purple Carrot Puree Powder

Abstract

Purple carrots are an important source of phenolic compounds and spray drying is the most advantageous method to make purple carrots more stable. Optimization analysis was carried out to determine the effects of inlet temperature, pump rate, and maltodextrin concentration on the process yield, antioxidant activity, total phenolic and anthocyanin content in the purple carrot puree powder. The optimum drying parameters obtained by maximizing the dependent variables (desirability=0.809) were determined as 16.51% (w/v) maltodextrin concentration, 180.16°C inlet temperature, and 30.39% pump rate. Process yield was 83.64%. Under optimum conditions, the dependent variables were 81.20% DPPH scavenging antioxidant activity, 5332.87 ppm total phenolic content as gallic acid equivalent, and 449.71 ppm total anthocyanin content as cyanidin-3-glucoside, and results indicated that they were preserved at 92.66, 90.43 and 83.79%, respectively.