Spray-Drying of Probiotic Cashew Apple Juice

Data on spray-drying of fruit juices containing probiotic bacteria are scarce. The main challenge is to avoid the viability losses of the microorganism during drying and storage. In the presented study, the dehydration by spray-drying of cashew apple juice containing Lactobacillus casei NRRL B-442, and the influence of the storage temperature (25 and 4 °C) on the viability of L. casei NRRL B-442 and on the physical properties of the powder during 35 days of storage were evaluated. Probiotic cashew apple juice was dehydrated according to the following conditions: inlet temperature of the drying air (120 °C), feed flow rate of juice (0.3 L/h), hot air flow (3.0 m³/min), and pressurized air flow (30 L/min). The outlet temperature was 75 °C. The carriers used were 20 % (w/v) maltodextrin or 10 % (w/v) maltodextrin + 10 % (w/v) gum arabic. Microbial survival rates higher than 90 % were obtained for the powder stored at 4 °C for 35 days (both carriers) and higher than 70 % up to 21 days for the powder obtained using only maltodextrin at 25 °C. Higher yields were obtained only by maltodextrin which was used as carrier (72 %) compared to the yield obtained when the mixture of maltodextrin and gum arabic was applied (60 %). The water activity was kept low (Aw?