About fruit and vegetable powder, you may want to know these!

Fruit and vegetable powder is made of dehydrated juice, pulp and fruit of fruits and vegetables into powder or broken particles, which completely or partially retains the taste, fiber, color, nutrition and other ingredients of fruits and vegetables, and becomes a healthy ingredient for producing food taste and flavor.

Fruit and vegetable powder can be divided into:

Solid beverage fruit and vegetable powder, raw material fruit and vegetable powder, starch fruit and vegetable powder, instant fruit and vegetable powder, seasoning fruit and vegetable powder.

01

Advantages of Fruit and Vegetable Powder

1. Good stability

Generally, the moisture content of fruit and vegetable powder is lower than 7%, which can effectively inhibit the reproduction of microorganisms and reduce the enzyme activity in fruits and vegetables.

2. Low transportation cost

After drying and pulverizing fruits and vegetables, the volume is reduced, the quality is lightened, the packaging materials are saved, and the transportation cost is also greatly reduced.

3. Rich in nutrition

The processed fruit and vegetable powder basically keeps the original nutritional components and flavor of fruits and vegetables, and makes some nutritional and functional components more conducive to digestion and absorption.

4. Efficient and comprehensive utilization of resources

There is no requirement for the size and shape of raw materials, and even the skins and cores of some fruits and vegetables can be effectively utilized.

5. Rich product variety

Compounded with multifunctional nutritional powder, it can be used to produce nutritional chewable tablets or added to other foods as ingredients to improve the color, flavor and nutrition of food.

02

Processing technology of fruit and vegetable powder

1. Ultra-fine grinding technology

Generally, it refers to the processing of 0.1-10μm ultra-fine powder and the corresponding classification technology. The particle size of the product is extremely small, the specific surface area increases dramatically, and the cell wall breaking rate increases, thus improving the physical and chemical properties (dispersibility, adsorbability, solubility, chemical activity, biological activity, etc.) of the material, expanding the application range of the material, and strengthening the use effect of the material.

2. Enzymatic hydrolysis technology

For fresh fruits, vegetables and fungi, after crushing, biological enzymolysis is adopted to break the cell wall and dissolve out the nutritional ingredients.

3. Vacuum freeze drying

Vacuum freeze-drying technology is a new drying method, which freezes water-containing materials into solid, and uses the biochemical properties of water at low temperature and low pressure to dehydrate the materials at low temperature. It has the advantages of preventing adverse chemical and biochemical changes, and less loss of flavor, aroma and nutrition.

4. Spray drying technology

Spray drying is used to make powder, and the raw material is sauce-like liquid, which avoids the problem of difficult processing and molding. The drying process can be completed instantaneously (for a few seconds) at a temperature not higher than 100℃, and the color, aroma, taste and nutritional components of general fruits can be well protected. At present, it is the best method for fruit and vegetable powder making.

5. Low temperature differential pressure puffing technology

Variable temperature and pressure difference puffing drying technology is a kind of combined drying technology which draws lessons from hot air drying and vacuum expansion drying, absorbs the advantages of hot air drying and vacuum freeze drying, overcomes the disadvantages of vacuum low-temperature frying drying, etc., and can produce products similar to those processed by freeze drying. It belongs to a new, environment-friendly and energy-saving puffing drying technology.

6. Screw extrusion technology

By means of the friction, extrusion and melting of the screw and barrel on the materials, the transportation, compression and crushing, mixing, expansion and polymerization are achieved.

7. Microwave/vacuum technology

Microwave drying and vacuum drying are combined. Speed up water loss at low temperature, suitable for high heat-sensitive substances, and suitable for producing vegetable powder, egg yolk powder and dehydrated grapes.

03

Application of Fruit and Vegetable Powder in Food

Fruit and vegetable powder can be applied to all fields of food processing, which is helpful to improve the nutritional components of products, improve the color and flavor of products and enrich the varieties of products.

Mainly used for:

Pasta products, such as carrot powder added to noodles, are processed into carrot noodles.

Puffed food, such as tomato powder as seasoning for puffed food.

Meat products, such as adding vegetable powder into ham sausage.

Dairy products, such as adding various fruit and vegetable powders to milk products.

Candy, apple powder and strawberry powder are added during the processing of candy.

Baked products, such as adding onion powder and tomato powder in biscuit processing.

Products, such as fruit wine and vinegar made from fruit powder through fermentation, blending and filtration, do not affect the flavor of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Role in food:

Candy, cakes, biscuits, bread and many other foods can be added with a certain proportion of fruit and vegetable powder in the production process, which can improve the nutritional structure of the products and make them superior in color, aroma and taste.

Fruit and vegetable powder contains pigment, pectin, tannin and other ingredients, and some specific fruits and vegetables also contain medicinal ingredients, from which valuable by-products can be extracted by biochemical means.

Fruit and vegetable juice is rich in vitamins and minerals. After proper treatment, cyclodextrins and other substances are added to effectively embed and protect most nutritional elements in fruit and vegetable juice. At the same time, some nutritional ingredients are strengthened, homogenized and vacuum freeze-dried to obtain nutritional fruit and vegetable powder.

Adding fruit and vegetable powder to foods for infants and the elderly can supplement vitamins and dietary fiber to balance the diet.