Honey powder preparation method

Short summary A Spanish research group has developed a procedure to produce powdered honey by lyophilization or by vacuum drying using maltodextrin as a dehydration aid, so that a fine and pleasant powdery solid is obtained. This maintains the sensory and physicochemical properties of honey as much as possible. They are looking for commercial and research cooperation agreements with cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food companies.

Full description The lyophilization and vacuum drying procedures described in this invention achieve the production of powdered honey with a floury texture, using only one additive (potato maltodextrin), with a greater amount of honey in the final solid product, a greater solubility, higher performance and lower hygroscopicity. It was found that the best honey dehydration procedures were vacuum drying and lyophilization, using maltodextrin as aid, because they presented the lowest percentages of water and were the best valued in sensory analyzes. The honey powder obtained presented the highest values of antioxidant capacity against the peroxyl radical and the highest results for in vitro anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. The grinding and preservation of the product must be carried out at temperatures below the Tg (glass transition temperature) of the honey powder obtained, which maintains optimal texture characteristics of this food without the need to incorporate anti-caking additives. The possible applications of powdered honey is its use in haute cuisine desserts as an ornament, or in the preparation of candies and confectionery products, pastries, chocolate with honey or cosmetics with honey. The sectors with potential application are: - Haute cuisine - Biscuit industry - Bakery and pastry industry - Confectionery industry - Cosmetic industry It would be desired to find companies and research groups from all around Europe to transfer the technology and/or start a collaboration with this Spanish institution. Applying for European funds could be a very interesting option, so would be to work in a new project based on their needs.

Advantages and innovations

• Honey contains a high concentration of sugars with low glass transition temperatures (Tg), which makes drying difficult since during dehydration an extremely sticky, hard and very difficult to handle product is formed. The invention that is described manages to avoid these drawbacks by drying the honey by lyophilization exclusively using honey and potato maltodextrin as a dehydration aid. The most innovative aspect that is presented with respect to other procedures described for the dehydration of honey, is that related to the temperatures of grinding the product and its conservation. The honey powder obtained contains 75% (freeze-drying) or 60% (vacuum drying) of honey solids and 25% (freeze-drying) or 40% (vacuum drying) of maltodextrin solids, being of fine texture and silky, with excellent sensory and physicochemical characteristics.
• Main advantages:
• Obtaining powdered honey with a concentration of total honey solids of 75% (lyophilization) or 60% (vacuum drying).
• Use of maltodextrin as the sole drying aid additive at a total solids concentration of 25% (lyophilization) or 40% (vacuum drying).
• Higher process yield: 73.6% -96.4% (lyophilization); 80.6%-97.9% (vacuum drying).
• Greater solubility and less hygroscopicity in the powdered honey obtained.
• Better physical-chemical and sensory characteristics of powdered honey.
• Possibility of marketing powdered honey within the demand for "clean labels" and the name "real food", as it contains only honey and maltodextrin

Contact / source: NEXT EEN Widgets (europa.eu)