Thermodynamic and Quality Properties of Lemon Juice Powder as Affected by Maltodextrin and Arabic Gum

Abstract

Sorption isotherms of lemon juice (LE) powders with and without additives—18% maltodextrin (MA) or 18% gum Arabic (GA)—were determined at 20–50°C. Addition of additives was shown to affect the isotherms in such a way that, at the same water activity, samples LE + GA and LE + MA presented lower equilibrium moisture content and were not so affected by varying temperature. The net isosteric heats of sorption of juice powders with additives were higher (less negative) than those of lemon juice powders, suggesting that there are more active polar sites in the product without addition of GA or MA. In general, the quality properties decreased with the addition of maltodextrin and gum arabic and it was obtained similar values for LE + GA and LE + MA.

Keywords:

• Fruit
• Gum arabic
• Heat of sorption
• Isotherm
• Maltodextrin

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are grateful for the financial support received from CNPq (Process number 474626/2004-0) and FAPESP (Process number 06/53945-9).