Production and characterization of atemoya pulp powder/Producao e caracterizacao da polpa de atemoia em po

The atemoya has attracted increasing interest due to its aroma, flavor and market value. But like most fruits is quite perishable, making necessary the application of preservation methods, such as drying spray, which prolongs the shelf life, reduces the water activity and gets as final product the food powder. The objective this study was dehydrated the formulation prepared with 50% atemoya pulp + 50% distilled water, added 25% maltodextrin, in a spray dryer with inlet air temperature of 180°C, the feeding flow rate of 0.5 L [h.sup.-1], air pressure of 30 kgf [cm.sup.-2] and the nozzle diameter of 1.2 mm. As the final product, it was obtained two powder samples, one collected in the drying chamber and another in the cyclone, been these characterized physic, physico-chemically and morphologically. The experimental data on physico-chemical analyzes were analyzed by completely randomized design. Evaluating the results it is observed that the color of the sample powder collected in the drying chamber was darker than that of the cyclone; samples of atemoya powder collected in the drying chamber had a higher moisture content, pH, ascorbic acid, ash, sugars and proteins in relation to the powder samples collected in the cyclone and lower water activity, absolute density and apparent, moreover, the powder of the drying chamber is more soluble, has a higher porosity and large particles than that of the cyclone and in both sticky aggregates are formed.