FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PROTEIN POWDER LIKE TOMATO POWDER, PINE APPLE POWDER ETC.

India is the 2nd largest producer of vegetables in the world. Processing of fruits and vegetables in India becomes very important as major chunk of them gets exported to various countries. Drying of food is the one oldest technology to preserve them for longer period. Among various known methods, spray drying is one such method which is very useful and important because of its various applications.

Post-harvest, there used to be tremendous loss in preserving food. After converting food/vegetables into pulp, they are spray dried to convert them into powder. Spray drying helps maintain the real taste and flavor of the fruit and vegetable along with preventing its nutritive value. Fat powders are micro fine emulsified fats improving the sensory properties like creaminess, mouth feel and the appearance of the product in which added. Fat powders with different fat base & fat levels up to 80% can be achievable with spray drying machines and technology.
Tomato Powder

Tomato powder, as the name emplies, is the dehydrated tomato juice in broad sense. Tomato powder can be manufactured by one of the various methods for the dehydration of tomato juice.

Concentration of fruit & vegetable juices to powders for subsequent use in bakery products, beverages, jellies, puddings and other deserts has been subject of numerous investigations. Result of this work are evidenced by a large number of articles, patents and commercial installation for dehydration of fruit & vegetable juices. possible savings in packaging, storage, transportation and convenience, in certain instances, account for the continued interest in commercial development of powder product. It is evident, however, that the present trend towards ready to use desserts and other formulated food products adds much to the commercial possibilities of powdered fruit juices and pups.

Manufacture of high quality powdered fruit & vegetable juices ie. Tomato juice requires special care in selection of process and equipment. As these powders are sensitive to heat damage, the drying process, must be designed for conditions leading to minimum value for the product of time temperature. Ideally, this might be accompanised either by using high temperature and very short times or by dehydrating at low temperatures and relatively longer time. As the first of these conditions is a feature of spray drying, it is not surprising to find that this method was emphasized in early work on preparation of powdered juices. More recently, several other methods have come into use.

The method of manufacture of tomato juice is such as to cause little change in composition and nutritive value from those of raw tomatoes. In proximate composition, the most conspicuous change is a reduction of crude fibre due to removal of spins, cores & seedsin extraction. The carotene retention is expected to some extent and the ascorbic acid content quite marbedly, by variations in the technique of manufacture. Since, the ascorbic acid content is a strong feature of the product nutritionally; there is a ample incentive for adoption of processing methods favouring retention of this vitamin.

On the retention of nutrients in the preparation and canning of tomato juice, an average retention of carotene of about 67%, the loss reflecting the straining out of some carotene containing material during extraction. Ascorbic acid retention varied from 35 to 90% with an average about 67 percent.

Amino Acid

Amino acids are used in many industrial applications as bulk biochemical to produce a wide range of products such as animal feed additives, flavour enhancers in human nutrition or as ingredients in cosmetic and medical products.

Besides the amino acids important role as intermediates as building blocks of proteins, they are involved in the regulation of key metabolic pathways and processes that are crucial for the growth and the maintenance of organisms. In particular, they promote health by several actions, including maximizing the efficiency of food utilization, reducing the adiposity, regulating the muscle protein metabolism and controlling the growth and immunity of the organism.

Amino acids can be produced by different processes such as extraction from protein hydrolysates, chemical synthesis or enzymatic and fermentation pathways with the aid of microorganisms. In particular, the fermentation process is becoming one of the most promising processes for amino acids commercial production because of the new genetic engineering tools applied to maximize yield, specificity and productivity of the target compounds.

The interest in the production of amino acids has increased over the years resulting in the development of a variety of technologies.

The development of new applications for amino acids, such as pharmaceutical, food additives, feed supplements, cosmetics, polymer materials and agricultural chemicals, led to a fast increase in the amino acid production.