International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010, 45, 25152523

Original article
Moisture sorption characteristics and glass transition temperature
of apple puree powder
Ewa Jakubczyk,1* Ewa Ostrowska-Ligeza2 & Ewa Gondek1
1 Department of Food Engineering and Process Management, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159C, 02-776 Warsaw,
Poland
2 Department of Chemistry, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159C, 02-776
Warsaw, Poland
(Received 28 April 2010; Accepted in revised form 9 August 2010)

Summary

The aim of this study was to characterise the inuence of dierent foam-mat-drying methods on the moisture
sorption characteristics and glass transition temperatures of apple puree powder. Apple puree was foamed
with the addition of 2.5% egg albumin and 0.5% methylcellulose. Convective air-drying and microwavedrying techniques were used. Also foamed puree with and without maltodextrin (6% or 15% w w) was
freeze-dried. Moisture equilibrium data of powders were determined by using a static desiccator method in a
water activity range of 0.00.903. Modulated dierential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) was used to obtain
the glass transition temperature. No eect of drying method on sorption properties and glass transition
temperatures of apple puree powders was observed. The addition of maltodextrin to the apple puree caused
an increase in Tg by 1030 C depending on the amount of incorporated additive. Addition of maltodextrin
signicantly reduced the hygroscopicity of apple puree powders.

Keywords

Apple powder, foam-mat drying, glass transition temperature, water sorption.

Introduction

Fruit powders are convenient, easy to handle and can be

used to prepare several products such as snacks,
beverages, bakery goods and pastes (Khalil et al.,
2002). The nutritional and functional benets as well
as the characteristic avours, colours and water binding
properties of powders make them an ideal ingredient in
sauces, baby foods, extruded cereal products, fruit puree
for confections and llings for snacks (Pszczola, 2003;
Grabowski et al., 2008). Nevertheless, drying of fruit
pulps and other sugar-rich juices to powder is dicult
because of the high content of low molecular weight
sugars such as fructose, glucose, sucrose (Roos, 1995;
Bhandari et al., 1997; Jaya & Das, 2004) and organic
acids, which constitute more than 90% of solids in fruit
purees (Dolinsky et al., 2000; Adhikari et al., 2004).
Fruit powders have low glass transition temperatures
because low molecular weight sugars concentrated in
dried material tend to form amorphous, non-crystalline
structures (Roos, 2003). The glass transition temperature Tg can be dened as the temperature at which a
hard amorphous food system changes from the glassy to
*Correspondent: E-mail: ewa_jakubczyk@sggw.pl

the rubbery state with a consequent change in molecular

mobility. Food materials are fairly stable below their Tg
but when the temperature rises above Tg, a solid
structure is transformed to a supercooled liquid state
with time-dependent ow (Roos, 1995; Roos, 2003).
There are various glass transition-related changes in
foods, including stickiness, caking and structure collapse, as well as colour changes (Roos, 2003; Telis &
Mart nez-Navarrete, 2009). Exposure of food powders
to atmospheric humidity and temperature often results
in structural changes and impaired ow properties
(Roos, 1995). The glass transition temperature aects
the texture of foods as well as storage stability of dried
foods (Roos, 2003). Drying of fruit juices can produce a
paste-like material instead of powder because of their
hygroscopicity and thermoplasticity at high temperatures and humidities (Adhikari et al., 2004; Gabas et al.,
2007). To overcome this problem, some additives having
high Tg, such as maltodextrin or gums, can be used to
produce non-sticky and free-owing fruit powders
(Roos, 1995; Gabas et al., 2007; Jaya & Das, 2009).
The state of water and its interaction with food
ingredients play a crucial role in food storage. The
sorption isotherm characterises the relationship between
water content and its activity at constant temperature

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2010.02425.x
 2010 The Authors. International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

2515

2516

Sorption and glass transition of apple powder E. Jakubczyk et al.

(Sablani et al., 2007). The water sorption behaviour and

glass transition temperature are parameters that can be
employed in designing and optimising drying, packaging
and storage of food powders (Sablani et al., 2007;
Raharitsifa & Ratti, 2010b).
Foam-mat drying is a relatively simple and inexpensive method which enables the removal of water from
heat-sensitive foods that are dicult to dry. The foammat-drying technique can be used for sticky, viscous and
high-sugar content food products. The main advantages
of foam-mat drying are lower temperatures and shorter
drying times, when compared to non-foamed material
(Ratti & Kudra, 2006). Several studies have been
reported on the foam-mat drying of apple juice (Kudra
& Ratti, 2006), banana puree (Thuwapanichayanan
et al., 2008) and pear puree (Komes et al., 2007). Most
frequently, foamed materials have been dried by the air
convection method (Ratti & Kudra, 2006), but microwave-assisted drying (Jakubczyk, 2009) and vacuum
drying (Jakubczyk & Gondek, 2009) have been used for
wet foams. Foaming prior to freeze drying has also been
applied to dehydration of apple juice (Raharitsifa &
Ratti, 2010a,b) and egg white (Muthukumaran et al.,
2008).
The aim of this study was to investigate the inuence
of dierent foam-mat-drying methods on the moisture
sorption characteristics and glass transition temperature
of apple puree powder.
Materials and methods

Apple puree (16Brix,) without additives was provided

by a local manufacturer. Apple puree was foamed
with 2% (w w) egg albumin (Fluka) and 0.5%
methylcellulose (Methocel, 65HG, Fluka) using a
kitchen mixer at maximum speed for 5 min. Foamed
puree was dried as a 4 -mm layer using dierent
drying techniques. Air drying was performed in a
convective dryer at 60 C and at an air velocity of
1.2 m s)1. The process was also carried out using a
convection microwave dryer at the output power of
180 W; foamed purees were dried at 40 C and at an
air speed of 1.8 m s)1. The foamed puree was also
placed in aluminium trays and frozen at )40 C for
24 h. The material was then dried (26 h) in an Alpha
14 freeze-dryer (Christ) under a vacuum of 63 Pa and
with the heating plate temperature in the range
525 C. Additionally, foams with the addition of
6% and 15% (w w) maltodextrin DE10 (with dextrose
equivalent of 10) were freeze-dried. The dried product
was ground in a laboratory mill and passed through a
sieve having holes of 0.5 mm.
Saturated salt solutions were prepared corresponding
to a range of water activities from 0.00 to 0.903, and a
static desiccator method was used to obtain the sorption
isotherms. The salts were CaCl2, LiCl, CH3COOK,

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010

MgCl2, K2CO3, Mg(NO3)2, NaNO2, NaCl, (NH4)2SO4

and BaCl2, with water activities of 0, 0.113, 0.225, 0.329,
0.438, 0.529, 0.648, 0.753, 0.810 and 0.903, respectively.
The moisture content of apple powders obtained by the
dierent methods varied between 0.020 and
0.044 kg water kg)1 d.m. Therefore, ground-dried samples were dried in a vacuum oven (13 kPa, 40 C, 24 h)
to equilibrate water contents of the materials. Triplicate
samples of 1 g of powders were placed in 5-mL open
weighing dishes with diameter of 25 mm and stored for
3 months in air-sealed glass jars with salts of constant
water activities. The samples in jars were kept at a
constant temperature of 25 C until the sample weights
levelled o, indicating steady-state water contents. The
moisture content of equilibrated samples was measured
by the vacuum-drying method (70 C, 24 h). RotronicHygroscop DT was used to measure water activity of
powders after storage.
The GuggenheimAndersonDeBoer (GAB), Lewicki
and Peleg models were used to t the experimental data
of sorption isotherms of apple puree powders.
The GAB model is expressed by (Bizot, 1983):
u

um  c  k  aw
1  k  aw 1 c  1  k  aw 

where: um- monolayer moisture content (kg water kg)1 d.m.); c, k -constants of GAB model, aw- water
activity.
Lewicki model (Lewicki, 1998):
a
a

2
u
b
1 acw
1  aw
where: a, b, c- constants of Lewicki model.
Peleg model (Peleg, 1993):
u A  aBw C  aD
w

where: A, B, C, D- constants of Peleg model.

The adequacy of tted models was evaluated by the
determination coecient (R2) and the root mean square
error (RMSE).
PN
uP  uM 2
2
R PNi1
4
2
i1 uM  uM
s
PN
2
i1 uM  uP
RMSE
N

where: uM measured (experimental) value of water

content, uP predicted water content, uM average
moisture content, N number of observations.
Plotting of the water content residuals (uMup) against
the water activity for selected sorption models was used
for graphical evaluation of the error distribution.

 2010 The Authors

International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

Sorption and glass transition of apple powder E. Jakubczyk et al.

The water sorption kinetics were determined using a

chamber with relative humidity of 75.3% (saturated
NaCl solution). Samples stored in a dessicator over
CaCl2 (aw = 0) for 3 months were used to determine the
sorption kinetics. The anhydrous apple powder (1 g)
was placed in a small weighing dish ( = 45 mm) over
a saturated solution of NaCl. The sample was weighed
automatically (PW-Win software, Radwag, Radom,
Poland) every minute up to 24 h during storage.
Kinetics of water sorption of apple puree powder were
described by the solution of the second Ficks law
(Gondek & Lewicki, 2007):
u  ur
A  expKs
uo  ur
K

De
0:5  L2

where: u water content (kg 100 kg d.m.), subscripts o

and r are for initial and equilibrium, s time (min),
A shape factor, K coefcient related to water
diffusion (min)1), L thickness of material (m), De
eective moisture diusivity (m2 per min).
Hygroscopicity of the powders was determined
according to Cai & Corke (2000), Kurozawa et al.
(2009) with some modications. Samples (about 1 g) of
each powder were placed in an aluminium dish over a
saturated salt solution (NaCl) (aw = 0.753) and
weighed after 3 days. Hygroscopicity (H) of the apple
puree powders was expressed as kg water 100 kg d.m.
The average values of three replicates were obtained.
Modulated dierential scanning calorimetry (MDSC
or modulated DSC) was used to determine the glass
transition temperature of maltodextrin DE10 and dried
apple puree (obtained by dierent drying methods) at
low water activity (aw = 0). The thermal transition
experiments in apple powder were conducted with a
dierential scanning calorimeter (DSC Q200; TA Instruments, New Castle, DE, USA). The DSC technique was
used to obtain heat ow (W g)1) versus temperature
thermograms. The cell was purged with 50 mL min)1
dry nitrogen and calibrated for baseline on an empty
oven and for temperature using standard pure indium.
Specic heat capacity (Cp) was calibrated using a
sapphire. The apple powders were cooled by a mechanical refrigerated cooling system. An empty sealed
aluminium pan was used as a reference in each test.
Apple powders (1015 mg) were non-hermetically sealed
in aluminium pans (volume 30 lL) and cooled from
room temperature to )80 C at 5 C per min and
equilibrated for 5 min. Samples were scanned from )80
to 180 C at a heating rate of 5 C per min, which is
commonly used to determine the glass transition temperature (Khallou & Ratti, 2000; Syamaladevi et al.,
2009; Telis & Mart nez-Navarrete, 2009).

In the case of MDSC, samples were scanned from )80

to 180C at a constant heating rate of 2 C per min with
an amplitude of 1 C and 60 s period of modulation.
Thermograms were analysed with respect to the total,
reversible and non-reversible heat ow. Glass transition
(Tg) was determined as the mid-point of a vertical shift
in the reversing transition curve of the thermogram.
This mode allows one to investigate more accurately the
inuence of the thermal history of the sample separately
for the reversing and the non-reversing components
(Rahman et al., 2007). TA Instruments Universal analysis software was used to analyse the glass transition
temperature. The measurements of Tg were done in
three replicates for each apple powder.
Results are expressed as mean standard deviations.
To analyse the eects of the method and water activity
on the water content and glass transition temperatures,
a two-way analysis of variance (anova) and Tukeys test
were used to establish the signicance of dierences
among the mean values of the sorption and glass
transition properties of apple puree powders. The data
were analysed using Statgraphics Plus for Windows
program, version 4.1 (Statistical Graphics Corporation,
Warrenton, VA, USA) and Table Curve 2D version 3
(AISN Software Inc., Mapleton, OR, USA).
Results and discussion

Knowledge of water sorption isotherms is crucial to

predict the shelf life stability and quality of food powder
during storage. The selection of an appropriate mathematical model of sorption behaviour is dicult because
of the complex chemical composition and structure of
food (Raharitsifa & Ratti, 2010b).
Sorption isotherms of apple puree powder were
described by the GAB, Peleg and Lewicki models. The
estimated parameters of models and the goodness of t
expressed by root mean squared error (RMSE) and
coecient of determination (R2) are given in Table 1.
The GAB model showed better t to the water
sorption data than the other tested models, as observed
from smaller RMSE values. The GAB model has been
commonly used to t sorption data of fruit powders
(Tsami et al., 1999; Khallou & Ratti, 2000; Martinelli
et al., 2007; Syamaladevi et al., 2009), and also Raharitsifa & Ratti (2010b) applied this model to describe
water sorption behaviour of apple juice powder produced by the foam-mat freeze-drying method. In the
case of sorption properties of apple puree powder,
parameters obtained in the present work did not full
the theoretical and mathematical requirements of the
GAB model, because values of constant c fell outside the
limits of the range 5.67 c (Table 1). Lewicki
(1997) concluded that keeping c values within this range
guaranteed that the calculated monolayer values diered
by not more than 15.5% from the true monolayer water

 2010 The Authors

International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010

2517

2518

Sorption and glass transition of apple powder E. Jakubczyk et al.

Table 1 Parameters of models used to describe sorption isotherms of apple puree powders
Parameters of models
Material

GAB

Freeze-dried

um = 0.120 0.002
c = 1.050 0.031
k = 0.960 0.002
R2 = 0.997
RMSE = 0.0110
um = 0.125 0.003
c = 1.160 0.040
k = 0.964 0.003
R2 = 0.998
RMSE = 0.0120
um = 0.125 0.003
c = 1.161 0.011
k = 0.965 0.004
R2 = 0.998
RMSE = 0.0128
um = 0.082 0.001
c = 1.530 0.021
k = 0.960 0.001
R2 = 0.998
RMSE = 0.0170

Air-dried

Microwave-convection-dried

Freeze-dried with 15% maltodextrin

kg kg)1 d.m.

kg kg)1 d.m.

kg kg)1 d.m.

kg kg)1 d.m.

Lewicki

Peleg

a = 0.138 0.011
b = 0.794 0.002
c = 2.989 0.097
R2 = 0.997
RMSE = 0.0120
a = 0.151 0.012
b = 0.801 0.007
c = 2.630 0.056
R2 = 0.998
RMSE = 0.0320
a = 0.155 0.018
b = 0.805 0.009
c = 2.637 0.058
R2 = 0.998
RMSE = 0.0390
a = 0.100 0.009
b = 0.791 0.004
c = 1.890 0.021
R2 = 0.998
RMSE = 0.0680

A = 1.450 0.018
B = 12.878 0.170
C = 0.510 0.007
D = 2.014 0.031
R2 = 0.998, RMSE =
A = 1.431 0.027
B = 10.851 0.321
C = 0.461 0.007
D = 1.811 0.012
R2 = 0.998, RMSE =
A = 1.427 0.021
B = 10.85 0.120
C = 0.461 0.002
D = 1.814 0.014
R2 = 0.998, RMSE =
A = 0.931 0.005
B = 10.290 0.079
C = 0.290 0.005
D = 1.62 0,010
R2 = 0.998, RMSE =

0.0113

0.0383

0.0383

0.0076

RMSE, root mean square error; GAB, GuggenheimAndersonDeBoer.

content. If c = 2, then the inection point occurs at

aw = 0, the isotherm no longer has a sigmoidal shape
and classication of the isotherm as type II is not
possible. The eect of the low values of c explained the
too large values of monolayer capacities obtained for
dill and garlic and the worse ttings of the GAB model
in the low range of aw (Furmaniak et al., 2009).
Mathematical and statistical analysis showed that at
c < 5.6 the GAB model could not be used to describe
isotherms of pumpkin seeds, hazel nuts and ax seeds
(Lewicki & Gondek, 2000) as well as freeze-dried
strawberries (Ciurzynska & Lenart, 2010).
Figure 1 presents residual plots of the GAB model of
analysed apple puree powders. The assessment of model
validity may be evaluated in graphical form by constructing a residual plot of sorption data. The model is
correct if the residuals are random independent errors
with constant variance and zero mean, arranged in a
normal distribution; then, there should not be a clear
pattern in the residual plot (Basu et al., 2006; RuizLopez & Herman-Lara, 2009). The residual plot indicates a clear pattern, so the GAB model should be
rejected. The residual randomness observed for the
Peleg model (Figure S1) as well as the Lewicki model
(not presented) may indicate that models of errors are
normally distributed. Therefore, the GAB model failed
to characterise the sorption isotherms of apple puree
powder. Jayas & Mazza (1993) and Basu et al. (2006)
stated that high values of statistical indices (the residual

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010

Figure 1 Residual plot of sorption data for apple pulp powders (GAB

model).

sum of squares, the standard error of the estimate, the

mean relative deviation) and clear patterns in the
residual plots indicate that the model do not explain
the variation in the experimental data. The Peleg model
provided a good description of the sorption isotherms
with the highest values of R2 = 0.998 and low values of
RMSE (0.00760.0383) for all tested powders.
The experimental and estimated values, using the
Peleg model, of sorption isotherms for apple puree dried
by dierent methods and with the addition of maltod-

 2010 The Authors

International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

Sorption and glass transition of apple powder E. Jakubczyk et al.

Figure 2 Effect of drying method and addition of maltodextrin on

sorption isotherms of apple puree powder.
Figure 3 Adsorption kinetics curves for apple puree powders.

extrin (15% w w) are shown in Fig. 2. The water

sorption isotherms of apple puree powders followed
typical type III behaviour according to Brunauers
classication. The shape of all sorption isotherms is
common for high sugar food, which absorbs a relatively
small amount of water at low water activities and large
amounts at high aw. The type III isotherm shape was
also obtained for osmo-oven dried African star apple
and mango (Falade & Aworh, 2004), air-dehydrated
grapefruit (Fabra et al., 2009) and freeze-dried blueberries (Lim et al., 1995). However, type II sigmoid-shaped
sorption isotherms were observed for foam freeze-dried
apple juice (Raharitsifa & Ratti, 2010b). The dierent
shape of sorption isotherms of apple juice and puree
powder may be a result of the high concentration of
solids in apple puree.
The water sorption isotherms of the microwaveconvection-dried, air-dried and freeze-dried apple
puree were similar, while the freeze-dried puree with
maltodextrin absorbed less water (for clarity, air-dried
powder is not presented in Fig. 2). Statistical analysis
(anova) showed that no eect of drying method on
water sorption behaviour was observed for apple puree
powder. This observation is in agreement with Desobry et al. (1997), who found the sorption isotherms of
b-carotene powder obtained by dierent methods to be
similar. In contrast, the results presented by Tsami
et al. (1999) and Miao & Roos (2004) showed that
freeze-dried powder absorbed more water than
powders obtained by microwave-convection drying or
spray drying. The dierent water sorption properties
of powders were because of the structural and
geometric dierences resulting from dierent methods
(Miao & Roos, 2004). It seems that the foaming of
apple puree resulted in higher volume and surface
area of material during drying. Undoubtedly, all the

investigated drying methods provided a dry product

with porous structure, which aected the high adsorptive capacity.
Addition of maltodextrin to apple puree caused a
signicant lowering of equilibrium moisture content of
powder at a given water activity. Similar behaviour was
also observed for tropical fruit powders (Silva et al.,
2006; Gabas et al., 2007; Martinelli et al., 2007; Telis &
Mart nez-Navarrete, 2009).
The eect of drying method and maltodextrin addition on adsorption kinetics at aw = 0.753 is presented in
Fig. 3. Higher water sorption was observed for apple
puree powder obtained without addition of maltodextrin. A similar tendency was observed for lemon juice
powder (Martinelli et al., 2007). The only statistically
signicant dierence occurred between adsorption
kinetics curves obtained for apple puree dried with
maltodextrin and those recorded for powders without
additives. The freeze-dried powder absorbed slightly less
water than air-dried and microwave-dried powder. The
values of the water content ur after an innite time
calculated for apple powder with maltodextrin were
signicantly lower than observed for other pure apple
puree powders, as shown in Table 2.
The addition of maltodextrin signicantly aected
powder hygroscopicity, which varied from 32.89 kg
water 100 kg d.m. (air-dried apple puree without
maltodextrin) to 23.14 kg water 100 kg d.m. (freezedried apple puree containing 15% maltodextrin). As
expected, an increase in concentration of additives from
6 to 15% caused a decrease in the water uptake of
powders (Table 2). It was observed that the pure apple
powders (without maltodextrin) experienced a signicant caking problem after storage at aw = 0.753. The
apple puree powder with the highest maltodextrin
content did not contribute to caking.

 2010 The Authors

International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010

2519

2520

Sorption and glass transition of apple powder E. Jakubczyk et al.

Table 2 Parameters of adsorption kinetics eqn (6) and hygroscopicity (H) of powders
Parameter Material

ur kg 100 kg)1 d.m.

Freeze-dried
Air-dried
Microwave-convection-dried
Freeze-dried +6% maltodextrin
Freeze-dried +15% maltodextrin

32.77
33.05
33.79
25.79
23.97

1.08a
0.81a
0.94a
0.88b
1.55b

K min)1
0.0015
0.0022
0.0016
0.0012
0.0019

A
0.0007a
0.0004a
0.0005a
0.0008a
0.0007a

0.798
0.797
0.818
0.850
0.866

0.014a
0.032a
0.021a
0.019b
0.024b

R2

H kg 100 kg21 d.m.

0.994
0.992
0.992
0.997
0.996

32.04
32.89
33.61
25.23
23.14

1.21a
1.25
1.41a
0,85b
1.02c

Values represent means standard deviations. Different letters indicate that the samples are considered significantly different at the 5% level (P < 0.05).

Figures 4 and S2 show the DSC thermograms

obtained with dried apple puree powders conditioned
at aw = 0. The powders produced by dierent drying
methods showed similar behaviour, which is in agreement with the tendency observed for the sorption data.
The MDSC technique enables one to obtain more
accurate values of glass temperature transition. As
expected, values of glass transition temperatures at
aw = 0 did not dier signicantly, and the average
value of Tgm (mid-point glass transition temperature)

Figure 4 Effect of drying method on the DSC thermograms of apple

puree powder.

was 34 C (Table 3). Results obtained by Raharitsifa &

Ratti (2010b) for foamed apple juice powder at low
water activity showed that the glass transition temperature was about 20 C. The glass transition temperatures of other fruit powders reported in the literature
varied signicantly. Tg = )3.2 C (aw = 0.11) was
observed for freeze-dried camu-camu pulp, while the
pulp with maltodextrin at the same water activity had a
Tg of 62.7 C (Silva et al., 2006), but for anhydrous
raspberry powder the glass transition temperature was
40.2 C (Syamaladevi et al., 2009). The glass transition
temperatures of foods are mainly dependent on the
moisture content and chemical composition of the
material.
The food industry uses water activity and the glass
transition concept to determine food stability (Rahman,
2006). The glass transition temperature of fruit powders
depends on water activity and the presence of low
molecular sugars. The water activity observed for apple
powders was about 0.08; thus, the measurement of glass
transition temperature at aw = 0 was adequate for
properties of apple puree after drying. The cooling of
dried samples was a critical point of foam-mat technology because the range of glass transition temperatures
obtained for apple powders was relatively low. Thus, the
glass transition, greatly inuencing food stability, may
take place during cooling of dried samples. The high
hygroscopicity of apple powders without maltodextrin
and their tendency to caking were a result of low glass
transition temperature. To obtain high quality apple

Table 3 Glass transition temperature (initial Tgi, mid Tgm and end-point Tge) of apple powder
Glass transition temperature
Material
Apple puree powder
Apple puree powder
Apple puree powder
Apple puree powder
Apple puree powder
Maltodextrin DE10

Tgi (C)
(freeze-dried)
(microwave-convection-dried)
(air-dried)
with 6% (w w) maltodextrin (freeze-dried)
with 15% (w w) maltodextrin (freeze-dried)

27.8
29.7
29.4
43.1
53.5
132.1

Tgm (C)
0.9a
0.9a
0.6a
2.1b
1.5c
5.2d

33.1
35.0
34.1
48.7
64.1
139.7

0.9a
1.4a
0.9a
1.3b
0.9c
3.2d

Tge (C)
38.4
40.3
46.0
53.9
68.3
147.4

1.8a
1.2a
2.3b
1.9c
1.2d
4.0e

Values represent means standard deviations. Different letters indicate that the samples are considered significantly different at the 5% level (P < 0.05).

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010

 2010 The Authors

International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

Sorption and glass transition of apple powder E. Jakubczyk et al.

Figure 5 Effect of maltodextrin addition on the heat ow thermograms

of powdered freeze-dried apple.

powders that are stable during storage, the glass

transition temperature should be raised.
The eect of addition of maltodextrin on the thermograms of freeze-dried apple puree is shown in Fig. 5.
The increase in additives content moved the thermograms of powder towards higher temperatures. The
endothermal peaks observed on the thermograms of
apple puree powders with maltodextrin characterised
the glass transition. The maximal temperature of the
endothermal peak increased from 53 to 70 C with
increasing maltodextrin incorporation into apple puree
from 6 to 15%. The presence of large peaks may indicate
a high concentration of biopolymers (mainly polysaccharides). Kasapsis (2005) stated that at low moisture
content, regardless of the polysaccharide type, an
endothermic peak appeared consistently within the
4580 C temperature band during the rst heating scan
on a calorimeter. The DSC curves of freeze-dried camucamu pulp with 30% maltodextrin DE 20 showed also a
large endothermic peak in the low moisture content
range (Silva et al., 2006).
The glass transition temperature of a powder containing 6% maltodextrin was about 10 C higher than
that of a pure apple powder. The increase of added
maltodextrin to 15% caused an increase in Tg to an
average value of 64.1 C. A similar eect of maltodextrin addition was also observed for grapefruit powder
(Telis & Mart nez-Navarrete, 2009) and freeze-dried
camu-camu pulp (Syamaladevi et al., 2009). Boonyai
et al. (2006) stated that spray drying of honey and apple
juice was impossible without the addition of large
amounts of additives. The maltodextrin DE10 used for
apple puree had a high glassy transition temperature,
Tg = 137.1 C (Table 3). Claude & Ubbink (2006)
reported that Tg depended on the dextrose equivalent,
which denotes the percentage fraction of reducing sugars

in the sample. They also noted that the values of glass

transition temperatures of pure and dry maltodextrin
varied from 197.7 C (DE = 6) to 102.8 C (DE = 33).
Tonon et al. (2009) observed that acai juice powders
with maltodextrin DE10 showed higher glass transition
temperatures when compared to those produced with
maltodextrin 20DE, which was related to the decrease in
the molecular weight.
Higher values of glass transition temperature after
incorporation of additives have been observed for many
fruit powders (Silva et al., 2006; Kurozawa et al., 2009;
Telis & Mart nez-Navarrete, 2009), which conrms the
ecacy of adding maltodextrin.
The glass transition temperatures of apple powders
were only measured for powders conditioned at aw = 0.
Therefore, further research is necessary to obtain the
glass transition temperature for a wide range of water
activities, which will enable the shelf life stability of the
powders to be evaluated using a state diagram.
Conclusions

This work shows that the GAB model was inadequate to

describe the water sorption isotherms of all apple puree
powders. The water adsorption isotherms of powders
modelled by the Peleg equation followed typical type III
behaviour characteristic for high sugar foods. No eect
of drying method on sorption properties and glass
transition temperatures of apple puree powders was
observed. The addition of maltodextrin to the apple
puree caused an increase in glass transition by 1030 C
depending on the amount of incorporated maltodextrin.
The incorporation of maltodextrin into apple puree
signicantly reduced the hygroscopicity of the powders.
The apple puree without maltodextrin dried by dierent
methods showed a tendency to caking at high water
activity.
References
Adhikari, B., Howes, T., Bhandari, B.R. & Truong, V. (2004). Eect of
addition of maltodextrin on drying kinetics and stickiness of sugar
and acid-rich foods during convective drying: experiments and
modeling. Journal of Food Engineering, 62, 5368.
Basu, S., Shivhare, U.S. & Mujumdar, A.S. (2006). Models for
sorption isotherms for foods: a review. Drying Technology, 24, 917
930.
Bhandari, B.R., Datta, N. & Howes, T. (1997). Problem associated with
spray drying of sugar-rich foods. Drying Technology, 15, 671684.
Bizot, H. (1983). Using the GAB model to construct sorption
isotherms. In: Physical Properties of Foods (edited by R. Jowitt, F.
Escher, B. Hallstrom, H.F.T. Meert, W.E.L. Spiess & G. Vos). Pp.
4354. London, UK: Applied Science Publishers.
Boonyai, P., Howes, T. & Bhandari, B. (2006). Applications of the
cyclone stickiness test for characterization of stickiness in food
powders. Drying Technology, 24, 703709.
Cai, Y.Z. & Corke, H. (2000). Production and properties of spraydried amaranthus betacyanin pigments. Journal of Food Science, 65,
12481252.

 2010 The Authors

International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010

2521

2522

Sorption and glass transition of apple powder E. Jakubczyk et al.

Ciurzynska, A. & Lenart, A. (2010). Rehydration and sorption

properties of osmotically pretreated freeze-dried strawberries. Journal of Food Engineering, 97, 267274.
Claude, J. & Ubbink, J. (2006). Thermal degradation of carbohydrate
polymers in amorphous states: a physical study including colorimetry. Food Chemistry, 96, 402410.
Desobry, S.A., Netto, F.M. & Labuza, T.P. (1997). Comparison of
spray-drying, drum-drying, and freeze-drying for b-carotene encapsulation and preservation. Journal of Food Science, 62, 11581162.
Dolinsky, A., Maletskaya, K. & Snezhkin, Y. (2000). Fruit and
vegetable powders production technology on the bases of spray and
convective drying methods. Drying Technology, 18, 747758.
Fabra, M.J., Talens, P., Moraga, G. & Mart nez-Navarrete, N. (2009).
Sorption isotherm and state diagram of grapefruit as a tool to
improve product processing and stability. Journal of Food Engineering, 93, 5258.
Falade, K.O. & Aworh, O.C. (2004). Adsorption isotherms of osmooven dried african star apple (Chrysophyllum albidum) and african
mango (Irvingia gabonensis) slices. European Food Research Technology, 218, 278283.
Furmaniak, S., Terzyk, A.P., Goebiewski, R., Gauden, P.A. &
Czepirski, L. (2009). Searching the most optimal model of water
sorption on foodstus in the whole range of relative humidity. Food
Research International, 42, 12031214.
Gabas, A.L., Telis, V.R.N., Sobral, P.J.A. & Telis-Romero, J. (2007).
Eect of maltodextrin and arabic gum in water vapor sorption
thermodynamic properties of vacuum dried pineapple pulp powder.
Journal of Food Engineering, 82, 246252.
Gondek, E. & Lewicki, P. (2007). Kinetics of water vapour sorption by
selected ingredients of muesli-type mixtures. Polish Journal of Food
and Nutrition Sciences, 57, 2326.
Grabowski, J.A., Truong, V. & Daubert, C.R. (2008). Nutritional and
rheological characterization of spray dried sweetpotato powder.
Lebensmittel Wissenschaft und Technologie, 41, 206216.
Jakubczyk, E. (2009). Characteristics of convection-microwave drying
of foamed apple pulp. Food. Science. Technology. Quality., 15, 199
206, (in Polish).
Jakubczyk, E. & Gondek, E. (2009). Vacuum drying characteristics of
foamed apple pulp. Technological Progress in Food Processing, 19,
1419, (in Polish).
Jaya, S. & Das, H. (2004). Eect of maltodextrin, glycerol monostearate and tricalcium phosphate on vacuum dried mango powder
properties. Journal of Food Engineering, 63, 125134.
Jaya, S. & Das, H. (2009). Glass transition and sticky point
temperatures and stability mobility diagram of fruit powders. Food
and Bioprocess Technology, 2, 8995.
Jayas, D.S. & Mazza, G. (1993). Comparison of ve, three-parameter
equations for the description of adsorption data of oats. Transactions of the ASAE, 36, 119125.
Kasapsis, S. (2005). Glass transition phenomena in dehydrated model
systems and foods: a review. Drying Technology, 23, 731757.
Khalil, K.E., Mostafa, M.F., Saleh, Y.G. & Nagib, A.I. (2002).
Production of mango powder by foam-drying of the juice. Egyptian
Journal of Food Science, 30, 2341.
Khallou, S. & Ratti, C. (2000). Mathematical model for prediction of
glass transition temperature of fruit powders. Journal of Food
Science, 65, 842848.
Komes, D., Lovric, T. & Kovacevic Ganic, K. (2007). Aroma of
dehydrated pear products. Lebensmittel Wissenschaft und Technologie, 40, 15781586.
Kudra, T. & Ratti, C. (2006). Foam-mat drying: energy and cost
analyses. Canadian Biosystems Engineering, 48, 2732.
Kurozawa, L.E., Park, K.J. & Hubinger, M.D. (2009). Eect of carrier
agents on the physicochemical properties of a spray dried chicken
meat protein hydrolysate. Journal of Food Engineering, 94, 326333.
Lewicki, P. (1997). The applicability of the GAB model for the food
water sorption isotherms. International Journal of Food Science and
Technology, 32, 553557.

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010

Lewicki, P. (1998). A three parameter equation for food moisture

sorption isotherms. Journal of Food Process Engineering, 21, 127
144.
Lewicki, P.P. & Gondek, E. (2000). Water sorption properties of some
ingredients of muesli. In: XIth Seminar: Properties of Water in Foods
(edited by P.P. Lewicki). Pp. 7279. Warsaw, Poland: Warsaw
Agricultural University Press.
Lim, L.T., Tang, J. & He, J. (1995). Moisture sorption characteristics
of freeze dried blueberries. Journal of Food Science, 60, 810814.
Martinelli, L., Gabas, A.L. & Telis-Romero, J. (2007). Thermodynamic and quality properties of lemon juice powder as aected
by maltodextrin and arabic gum. Drying Technology, 25, 2035
2045.
Miao, S. & Roos, Y.H. (2004). Comparison of nonenzymatic
browning kinetics in spray-dried and freeze-dried carbohydratebased food model systems. Journal of Food Science, 69, 322331.
Muthukumaran, A., Ratti, C. & Raghavan, V.G.S. (2008). Foam-mat
freeze drying of egg white-mathematical modeling part II: freeze
drying and modeling. Drying Technology, 26, 513518.
Peleg, M. (1993). Assessment of a semi-empirical four parameter
general model for sigmoid moisture sorption isotherms. Journal of
Food Process Engineering, 16, 2137.
Pszczola, D.E. (2003). Delivery systems help send the right message.
Food Technology, 57, 6885.
Raharitsifa, N. & Ratti, C. (2010a). Foam-mat freeze-drying of apple
juice (Part 1): experimental data and ANN simulations. Journal of
Food Process Engineering, 33, 268283.
Raharitsifa, N. & Ratti, C. (2010b). Foam-mat freeze-drying of apple
juice part 2: stability of dry products during storage. Journal of Food
Process Engineering, 33, 341364.
Rahman, M.S. (2006). State diagram of foods: its potential use in food
processing and product stability. Trends in Food Science &
Technology, 17, 129141.
Rahman, M., Al-Marhubi, I. & Al-Mahrouqi, A. (2007). Measurement
of glass transition temperature by mechanical (DMTA), thermal
(DSC and MDSC), water diusion and density methods: a
comparison study. Chemical Physics Letters, 440, 372377.
Ratti, C. & Kudra, T. (2006). Drying of foamed biological
materials: opportunities and challenges. Drying Technology, 24,
11011108.
Roos, Y.H. (1995). Phase Transitions in Foods. Pp. 73192. San Diego,
USA: Academic Press.
Roos, Y.H. (2003). Thermal analysis, state transitions and food
quality. Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, 71, 197203.
Ruiz-Lopez, I.I. & Herman-Lara, E. (2009). Statistical indices for the
selection of food sorption isotherm models. Drying Technology, 27,
726738.
Sablani, S.S., Kasapis, S. & Rahman, M.S. (2007). Evaluating water
activity and glass transition concepts for food stability. Journal of
Food Engineering, 78, 266271.
Silva, M.A., Sobral, P.J.A. & Kieckbusch, T.G. (2006). State diagrams
of freeze-dried camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia (HBK) Mc Vaugh) pulp
with and without maltodextrin addition. Journal of Food Engineering, 77, 426432.
Syamaladevi, R.M., Sablani, S.S., Tang, J., Powers, J. & Swanson,
B.G. (2009). State diagram and water adsorption isotherm of
raspberry (Rubus idaeus). Journal of Food Engineering, 91, 460467.
Telis, V.R.N. & Mart nez-Navarrete, N. (2009). Collapse and color
changes in grapefruit juice powder as aected by water activity, glass
transition, and addition of carbohydrate polymers. Food Biophysics,
4, 8393.
Thuwapanichayanan, R., Prachayawarakorn, S. & Soponronnarit, S.
(2008). Drying characteristics and quality of banana foam mat.
Journal of Food Engineering, 86, 573583.
Tonon, R.V., Baroni, A.F., Brabet, C., Gibert, O., Pallet, D. &
Hubinger, M.D. (2009). Water sorption and glass transition
temperature of spray dried acai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) juice.
Journal of Food Engineering, 94, 215221.

 2010 The Authors

International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

Sorption and glass transition of apple powder E. Jakubczyk et al.

Tsami, E., Krokida, M.K. & Drouzas, A.E. (1999). Eect of drying
method on the sorption characteristics of model fruit powders.
Journal of Food Engineering, 38, 381392.

Supporting Information

Additional Supporting Information may be found in the

online version of this article:
Figure S1. Scattered residual plot of sorption data for
apple pulp powders (Peleg model).

Figure S2. Modulated dierential scanning calorimetry thermogram of apple puree powder.
Please note: Wiley-Blackwell are not responsible for
the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than
missing material) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

 2010 The Authors

International Journal of Food Science and Technology  2010 Institute of Food Science and Technology

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010

2523