Statistical analysis of the physico-chemical characterization of dairy and non-dairy food powders
Résumé
Food powders are generally characterised by their dry matter content. However, better understanding and further use would result from taking into account biochemical properties (protein, carbohydrate, lipid and mineral composition), as well as microbiological and physical properties (e.g., density, interstitial and occluded air, particle size, solubility, dispersibility, wettability, flowability, floodability, hygroscopicity, etc.). Indeed, all of these properties, which are discussed in this paper, determine: - the preservation/storage conditions of powders, in relation to their sensitivity to different types of damage (non-enzymatic browning or Maillard reactions, oxidation, microbial growth, etc.), - the properties of powders in use (flowability, solubility, rehydration, etc.) - and, more generally, powder quality from functional, nutritional and sensory points of view. We provide a comprehensive analysis to analyse the correlations between the properties of 10 commercial dairy powders and 15 commercial non-dairy food powders obtained by spray drying. Principle component analysis (PCA) was carried out to provide an overall representation of the experimental set up. Almost 45 % of the total variability was represented by the projection of the experimental set up on the map defined by the first two principle components (PC) of the PCA. This projection was used to group the following: -