Characterization of the Aroma Profile of Ginger Powder Produced by a Split-Stream Spray-Drying Process

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Freeze-dried ginger (Zingiber officinale) offers high quality but at a significant cost.
• Spray drying is a potential alternative for ginger powder production, but sugar-rich solutions cause processing challenges like stickiness.
• Conventional methods of adding carrier materials increase production costs and complicate product labeling.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a cost-effective spray-drying method for ginger powder production.
• To improve aroma retention in spray-dried ginger powder.
• To investigate the use of natural ginger fibers as an integrated carrier material.

Main Methods:

• A split-stream spray-drying process was designed, incorporating natural ginger fibers as a carrier.
• Spray drying was conducted with controlled inlet and outlet temperatures (220 °C and 80 °C, respectively) for optimal aroma preservation.
• Stir bar sorptive extraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (SBSE-GC-MS-O) was employed to analyze volatile compounds.

Main Results:

• The reintegration of ginger fibers into the spray-drying process significantly increased the concentration of eight key odorants.
• The developed spray-drying method resulted in a total odorant concentration 1.9 times higher than that of frozen ginger.
• While freeze-dried ginger retained more aroma overall, the spray-dried ginger with fibers showed a notable improvement in aroma compound concentration.

Conclusions:

• The split-stream spray-drying process utilizing natural ginger fibers is an effective strategy for producing high-aroma ginger powder.
• This method offers a cost-effective and label-friendly alternative to freeze-drying and the use of external carrier materials.
• The findings suggest a promising approach for enhancing the sensory quality of spray-dried ginger products.