Microencapsulation of Banana Juice from Three Different Cultivars

In order to effectively process and utilize surplus bananas and those without the quality for export, in this research it is proposed to microencapsulate the banana juice by means of spray drying and using maltodextrin as the covering material. Three cultivars Enano gigante (Musa AAA, subgroup Cavendish), and the tetraploids hybrids (AAAA), FHIA-17 and FHIA-23 were selected for this research. Being Enano gigante, the cultivar shows the highest glass transition temperature. The drying parameters were established, depending upon the ratio of juice/maltodextrin and the drying air temperature. The optimal drying air temperature was 220 degrees C for the three cultivars with a 20% juice/maltodextrin ratio for both the Enano Gigante and the FHIA-23, while in the FHIA-17 there were no significant differences between the juice/maltodextrin ratios. The morphology and size distribution of the microcapsules were observed by a scanning electron microscopy. The number of particles is directly proportional to the temperature and inversely proportional to the juice/maltodextrin ratio. A Weibull particle size distribution was common to all treatments. There is a correlation between the principal components and clustering analyses with the optimization of the system. The principal components analysis considers three Weibull parameters (obtained from the particle size distribution) and the powders moisture percentage.