Volatile composition and physicochemical characteristics of mussel (Perna perna) protein hydrolysate microencapsulated with maltodextrin and n-OSA modified starch

Abstract The aim of this work was to study the effect of the process conditions on the microencapsulation of mussel ( Perna perna ) protein hydrolysate, particularly with respect to volatile retention. Thus, the influence of the inlet/outlet drying air temperatures (180/80 °C and 210/100 °C) over the powder volatile composition and physicochemical characteristics was evaluated. Simultaneously, the concentrations of the carrier agents, composed by proportions of maltodextrin 10DE (MD) and modified starch HiCap ® 100 (HC) (0:100, 50:50, 75:25 and 100:0, respectively) in three different additions (3.7, 10.2 and 16.0%) was varied. Increasing the carrier agent concentration resulted in an increase in the microparticles diameter and reduction in powder hygroscopicity and T g values. HC resulted in more breakable microparticles, while MD provided the formation of rougher microparticles with a greater variation in size. Glass transition temperature and concentration of volatile compounds increased with higher drying temperatures and by the combination and concentration (the higher the better) of the carrier agents. Mussel hydrolysate powder spray dried at 210 °C as inlet drying temperature, with 16% of combined MD/HC (ratio 50/50) as carrier agent, showed a retention of hexanal, heptanal and octanal, respectively, 9.0, 4.6 and 4.2 times higher than in the pure hydrolysate powder. Therefore, this sample resulted in a good volatile concentration and physicochemical characteristics that can promote powder stability and was chosen as the best microencapsulation condition.