Production of Microencapsulated Crawfish (Procambarus clarkii) Astaxanthin in Oil by Spray Drying Technology

In this study, an emulsion prepared with flaxseed oil containing crawfish astaxanthin, sodium caseinate, lactose, and water was spray dried to produce microencapsulated flaxseed oil containing crawfish astaxanthin powder (MCA). Production rate and energy used to produce MCA were estimated. Physicochemical properties and storage stability of MCA were determined. The energy required to spray dry the microencapsulated flaxseed oil containing astaxanthin was 2.36 × 10⁴ kJ/kg of emulsion. The microencapsulation efficiency for MCA was 86.06%, which indicated that more oil was encapsulated than on the particles’ surfaces. The particle size of MCA ranged from 6 to 100 µm. The astaxanthin concentration in MCA was 13.76 μg/g powder and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) was the predominant fatty acid (53%) in MCA. Degradation of astaxanthin in MCA followed first-order reaction kinetics and could be well described by the Arrhenius equation. The astaxanthin in MCA was more stable when the powder was stored at 5°C than at 25 or 40°C.