Dry food ingredients are available in different forms, and are either milled to a final size or created to be a certain size using a process such as spray drying.
Bread loaf volumes are affected by the size and shape of flour.
Material characterisation of dry food ingredients allows:
- The production of consistently sized material
- The shape and size of a material to be measured, providing an understanding of how it packs and flows
- The size and shape of a dry ingredient will influence how it hydrates and any flavour it may impart or dissolves. The rheological behaviour of it in solution can be monitored and correlated against initial size and shape
- Molecular weight and structure of food biopolymers to be measured and the correlation of this to bulk rheological properties to be established
Malvern offers laboratory and process solutions for the optimisation of milling and spray drying of dry food ingredients, shape analysers to look at how particles pack and rheometers to understand how they hydrate.