O efeito da pressão de homogeneização na distribuição do tamanho de partículas durante a produção de leite em pó

Abstract

The nutraceuticals market has been growing worldwide due to society's demand to consume products that, in addition to nourishing, deliver benefits to the body. Nature is full of living beings that serve as a source of beneficial molecules for humans, with plants and algae being the main sources. These compounds are mainly secondary metabolites and are produced as a way to protect their producers from external changes in the environment, such as predators and temperature. These compounds are unstable in the face of environmental conditions, such as oxygen, light and heat, and may have an unpleasant taste for the consumer. In order to solve these problems, encapsulation systems are used. This is assembled from amphiphilic macromolecules that have sites of interaction with the compound to be protected, encompassing it internally in its structure and forming an external protective barrier. This is called the matrix, shell or wall and the inner part is the core or core of the structure. Milk proteins are macromolecules that can be used in the encapsulation of secondary metabolites. In addition to the structure of the macromolecule, the technological process used is an important factor in assembling the encapsulating system. Several techniques are used, among them spray drying and homogenization are important processes in the construction of the protective structure. The increase in homogenization pressure generates particles in the micrometric region, which can be used as encapsulating systems for active biomolecules. In the present work, the updating of the homogenization pressures of two cycles 15/5 MPa and 75/5 MPa generated homogenized fluid milks with 90% of the particles with sizes smaller than 1.48 ± 0.54 and 0.64 ± 0.21 , respectively. This decrease was also observed in powdered milk produced from homogenized fluid milk, generating 90% of particles with sizes smaller than 2.58 ± 1.96 and 1.00 ± 0.21 for homogenization pressures 15/5 MPa and 75/5 MPa, demonstrating that these unit operations can be used as a tool to encapsulate active biomolecules in the production of nutraceuticals.