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

Freeze-dried ginger (Zingiber officinale) is renowned for its high quality, but it is expensive. As an alternative, spray drying can be explored for producing ginger powder. However, sugar rich feed solutions can lead to stickiness development during the process. Adding carrier materials increases costs and labeling. Accordingly, a split-stream spray-drying process was developed, where ginger fibers in their natural composition were reintroduced as a carrier material into the spray-drying process. The inlet and outlet temperatures were set at 220 and 80 °C, respectively, for optimal aroma retention. Using a stir bar sorptive extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry, the results revealed that reintegrating ginger fibers significantly increased the concentration of eight key odorants. Although freeze-dried ginger retains more aroma, the total concentration of twenty-seven odorants in the developed spray-dried ginger was 1.9 times higher compared to frozen ginger.