Effect of spray-drying process on physical properties of sodium chloride/maltodextrin complexes

•Inlet temperature affected the surface area of NaCl/maltodextrin complexes during spray-drying.•Higher atomization pressure produced smaller particle size than lower pressure.•Saltiness recognition and melting rate of small sized NaCl/maltodextrin complexes were faster than other samples.

The mixture of sodium chloride and maltodextrin was processed by spray-drying with various inlet temperatures (130, 140, 150, 160 and 170 °C) or atomization pressure (60, 100, 140, 180 and 220 kPa). Physical properties of spray-dried maltodextrin/NaCl powder were characterized such as surface area or morphological images and sensory evaluation was carried out to observe saltiness of maltodextrin/NaCl complexes. At the high atomization pressure produced smallest particle of maltodextrin/NaCl complexes and it was effective to be melted faster and then saltiness was also rapidly recognized compared with bigger complexes. In this study, although inlet temperature was not effective like atomization pressure processing, relatively lower inlet temperature influenced on maltodextrin/NaCl complexes during spray-drying. It was suggested that decrease of salt particle size could improve melting speed and it could be helpful to enhance intensity of saltiness with small amount of salt.

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