Powder Technology 253 (2014) 230–236

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Powder Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Optimization of the spray-drying process for developing guava powder

using response surface methodology
Vaibhav Patil a, Anil Kumar Chauhan a,⁎, Ravi Pratap Singh b
a
Centre of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India
b
Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the spray-drying process for the development of
Received 19 May 2013 guava powder. The independent variables were different levels of inlet air temperature and maltodextrin concen-
Received in revised form 1 September 2013 tration. The responses were moisture, solubility, dispersibility and vitamin C value. Statistical analysis revealed
Accepted 24 November 2013
that independent variables significantly affected all the responses. The inlet air temperature showed maximum
Available online 2 December 2013
influence on moisture and vitamin C content, while the maltodextrin concentration showed similar influence
Keywords:
on solubility and dispersibility. Graphs were used for each response to generate an optimum area by superimpo-
Spray drying sition. The guava powder was developed using the derived optimum processing conditions to check the validity
Guava powder of the qudratic model. The experimental values were found to be in close agreement to the predicted values and
Response surface methodology were within the acceptable limits indicating the suitability of the model in predicting quality attributes of guava
Physico-chemical properties powder. The recommended optimum spray-drying conditions for drying guava slurry were inlet air temperature
and maltodextrin concentration of 185 °C and 7%, respectively. The spray dried guava powder contains higher
amounts vitamin C when compared to commercial fruit juice powders and they are also found to be free flowing
without any physical alterations such as caking, stickiness, collapse and crystallization.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction traditional and primitive, there is an impelling need to apply advanced

Drying is the process of preserving foods since ancient times.
Hundreds of variants are recently used in the drying of particulate
solids, pastes, continuous sheets, slurries or solutions; hence it provides
the most diversity among food process engineering unit operations. The
quality of a food powder is based on a variety of properties depending
on the specific application. In general, the final moisture content,
solubility, dispersibility and vitamin C are of primary importance [1].
Food powders are instantly present in routine life. They are generally
obtained from agricultural raw materials by different processes such
as fragmentation or spray-drying processes. Among the food products,
the food powders are easy to preserve, transport, store, weight and
process [2].
The growing of fruits is limited in many countries to certain seasons
and localities. In order to meet the demand of the market throughout
the year in all areas, the commodities are preserved using different
techniques. High moisture content will lead to the drop of quality and,
indirectly, to a decrease in quantity. The drying of fruits controls the
moisture content by either removing moisture or binding it so that
the food becomes stable to both microbial and chemical deterioration.
Drying is a common and economical preservation method for many
fruits in many countries. Although most of the drying methods are
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9450658188; fax: +91 542 2368993.
E-mail address: dranilchauhan@rediffmail.com (A.K. Chauhan).
techniques such as spray drying, with the objectives of increasing
productivity and obtaining closer control of the process to achieve a
product quality. This requires basic data on drying together with knowl-
edge of the fundamental principles involved. Nowadays, the fast eco-
nomic development has changed the pattern of consumption of food
from calories assurance to diet nutrient fortification. The consumers
today are well educated and well informed [3].
Hence, it is important today to develop new nutritional food, maxi-
mize their nutrient content in both processing and storage and extend
the shelf-life, and thus to meet the requirement of the market. In this
regard, the information on nutrient change in processing and storage
will be of great importance. Guava, with the scientific name, Psidium
guajava, belonging to family Myrtaceae. It is an important food crop
and medicinal plant cultivated or grows wild throughout the tropical
and subtropical regions, widely used in food and folk medicines around
the world [4]. The fruit is reported growing in more than 50 countries in
the world, whose major producers are India, Brazil, and Mecca. India
was reported leading in the world in guava production.
As fresh, guava is delicious and is one of the most nutritious fruits.
Guava is the second richest vitamin C content among all the fruits.
Hence, there is a worldwide growing demand for guava as a healthy
and nutritive fruit [3].
In India much attention is given to the characteristics of local and
introduced guava cultivars and their suitability for various purposes.
Guava is the fifth most important commercial fruit in India in area and

0032-5910/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2013.11.033
 V. Patil et al. / Powder Technology 253 (2014) 230–236
production after mango, banana, citrus and grapes. At present it oc-
cupies nearly 0.15 million hectares of land with a production of 1.80
million tons and productivity of 12 t/ha fruit per year in India. The
other guava producing countries are America, South Africa, South
Florida, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Kenya and Taiwan. Different va-
rieties of guava include the following: Apple color, Behat coconut,
Chittidar, Lucknow 42, Lucknow 49, Safeda, Smooth green, Allahabad
and Nagpur. Among red-fleshed cultivars in India there are Anakapalle,
Florida seedling and Hybrid red supreme Kothrud and Red-fleshed
Elisabeth and Acid speer Pink Indian and Patricia [5].
Guava is a seasonal fruit and is primarily consumed fresh. Currently,
world trade in the processed guava products is not as much as other
common fruits. However, for its nutritional value and being a seasonal
fruit, the demand of processed guava products in the future is likely to
have steady and significant increase. Presently, the following products
are being processed from guava; ascorbic acid (vitamin C), canned
slices, cheese, concentrate, dehydrated products, jam, jelly, juice, nectar,
pectin, puree, spread, syrup and yoghurt [6,7].
Spray drying is one of the unit operations, which are widely used in
almost all food industry and it is one of the most practical methods by
which the solution of solids in water can be dehydrated to yield a
solid final product. Other methods for the removal of water from such
solutions e.g. freeze-drying are usually quite expensive, while liquid–
liquid extraction requires the use of solvents, which is often undesirable
[1]. A new technique for spray drying using concentrated orange juice
maltodextrin as drying agent was developed. Various methods capable
of producing a free flowing fruit juice powder have been proposed:
addition of drying aids (maltodextrin) [8].
1.1. Problem statement
Guava fruit has a characteristic flavor, to which its acidity (pH 4.0 to
5.2) contributes [6]. It is a rich source of ascorbic acid, containing over
100 to 300 mg/100 g. The drying process is also capable of causing a re-
duction in ascorbic acid content of the juice due to oxidation and tem-
perature change. There is also potential for use of an instant guava
powder in formulated drinks, baby foods and other products. Transpor-
tation costs would be reduced significantly when shipping this product
to distant markets. However, the detailed information about guava
powders does not exist in the literature. Guava has the best nutritional
properties and drying operations must be carefully designed to main-
tain these nutritional properties. Nutrient retention in different temper-
ature and after drying must be investigated to determine temperature
effect and water activity level or moisture content effect on guava
juice and to design the best drying process. Therefore, to utilize the pro-
duce at the time of glut and to save it from spoilage, the development of
low cost processing technology of guava is highly required. It will also
generate enough opportunities of self-employment by starting small
scale processing unit or a cottage industry that will be remunerative
to the growers.
1.2. Drying
Drying is defined as the application of heat under controlled condi-
tions to remove the majority of the water normally present in a food
by evaporation. It is a complicated process involving simultaneous
heat and mass transfer in which heat penetrates into the product and
moisture is removed by evaporation into an unsaturated gas phase [9].
Guava drying can be done by many ways. The spray-drying pro-
cess has a higher retention of vitamin C and the pro-vitamins A and
beta-carotene. The juice is dispersed or atomized to form droplets
and sprayed into a heated chamber where it is dried and forms a
“free-flowing” powder. The more common technologies such as con-
vection, cabinet and drum drying are more costly, more labor-
intensive, more complicated, and more likely to cause “powder
burns”.
231
Spray drying is used to produce a wide range of products including
heat sensitive materials [10,11]. The flexibility of drier designs provides
opportunities to produce the powders that consistently meet industrial
specifications [12,13]. The production capacity can be expanded to over
25 t of product per hour [14]. The process is continuous and easily auto-
mated which can reduce labor costs [11,13]. There are less sticking and
corrosion problems in spray drying if the material does not contact the
equipment walls until it is dry [15]. It is a powerful tool for delivering
cost effective, high quality products [14].
1.3. Principle of the spray-drying technique
The first spray dryers were manufactured in the USA in 1933. Spray
drying is one of the best drying methods to convert directly the fluid
materials into solid or semi-solid particles [16]. Spray drying is a unit
operation by which a liquid product is atomized in a hot gas current
to instantaneously obtain a powder. The gas generally used is air or
more rarely an inert gas, particularly nitrogen gas. The initial liquid
feeding can be a solution, an emulsion or a suspension [17]. It can be
used to both heat-resistant and heat sensitive products.
Spray drying involves complex interactions of process, apparatus
and feed parameters which all have an influence on the final product
quality [18]. The spray-drying process can produce a good quality final
product with low water activity and reduce the weight, resulting in
easy storage and transportation. The physico-chemical properties of
the final product mainly depend on inlet temperature, air flow rate,
feed flow rate, atomizer speed, types of carrier agent and their concen-
tration. Spray drying is often selected as it can process material very rap-
idly while providing relative control of the particle size distribution [19].
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Spray dryer
The spray dryer is a device used to produce dried foods. It takes a liq-
uid stream and separates the solute or suspension as a solid and the sol-
vent into a vapor. The solid is usually collected in a drum or cyclone. The
liquid input stream is sprayed through a nozzle into a hot vapor stream
and vaporized. The solid forms as moisture contents quickly leave the
droplets. A nozzle is usually used to make the droplets as small as pos-
sible to maximize the heat transfer and rate of water vaporization. The
spray dryers can dry a product very quickly compared to other methods
of drying. They also turn a solution or slurry into a dried powder in a
single step, which can be the advantage for maximizing the profit and
minimize the process [20,16].
2.2. Steps of spray drying
2.2.1. Concentration of fruit juice
Generally, the feedstock is concentrated before introducing into the
spray dryer. The concentrated juice has increased in solid contents
thereby reducing the amount of liquids and that must be evaporated
in the spray dryer. The feedstock in conventional large scale spray
dryer normally concentrates to 50–60% (w/w) before introduction to
spray dryer. However, the small scale laboratory spray dryer will have
more diluted feedstock because it will be clogged easily if the feed has
high viscosity [16,20].
2.2.2. Atomization
Atomization refers to the conversion of bulk liquid into a spray or
mist, often by passing the liquid through a nozzle. The liquid which
sprayed through nozzle will increase the surface area of the liquid
which later will be contacted to hot air and dried into a powder. The
nozzle size may differ according to the size of spray dryer. Droplet size
ranges from 20 μm to 180 μm and it depends on the nozzle. Smaller
spray dryer occupies smaller nozzles and it is the reverse in the
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