Rehydration of food powders: interplay between physical properties and process conditions

Dehydrated food powders with poor dissolution or dispersion can dramatically compromise food processing, with consequences for the final product quality and consumer experience. In this study, the reconstitution performance of maltodextrin powders with different moisture content and molecular weight, has been determined by varying the processing conditions, including agitation speed, liquid temperature, powder addition rate and mode of addition to the liquid surface.

In particular, the inter-relationship between the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the powder, its moisture content and the liquid temperature (TL) is highlighted. When TL ≥ Tg, the individual maltodextrin granules tend to swell, restricting further dispersion and rehydration. It has been shown that higher liquid temperatures reduce the dispersion of food powders containing high molecular weight carbohydrates. Increasing the rate of powder addition to the liquid surface under low agitation conditions has been shown to result in faster reconstitution of low-molecular weight maltodextrin, whilst, on the other hand, the corresponding reconstitution rates of high-molecular weight maltodextrins are reduced.

On the basis of this work and a previous study [X.Y. Ong, S.E. Taylor and M. Ramaioli, Pouring of Grains onto Liquid Surfaces: Dispersion or Lump Formation? Langmuir (2019) 11150-11156] an improved, yet simple, approach to improve powder dispersion in a liquid is also demonstrated, by optimizing the distribution of the powder on the liquid surface. This approach avoids powder grains accumulating as heterogeneous lumps on the liquid surface and has been applied herein to a wide range of food powders.