COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FREEZE DRIED AND SPRAY DRIED BEET-ROOT POWDER ACCORDING TO PHYSICO-CHEMICAL, FUNCTIONAL AND COLOR PROPERTIES

The aim of the research endeavour was to evaluate the powder properties of freeze dried and spray dried beet-root powders.The physical, proximate, color and functional properties such as water activity, wettability, solubility and hygroscopicity were studied. From the comparative analysis between freeze and spray dried beet root powder, better results were found for freeze-dried samples in terms of color, wettability and hygroscopicity. Freeze-dried samples required a longer amount of time to obtain into powder form as compared to spray dried samples. Whereas the solubility and water activity values were found slightly higher in spray dried samples as compared to freeze dried samples. The proximate analysis, such as crude fiber, crude fat, ash and carbohydrate values recorded better result for freeze dried samples as compared to spray dried samples. It can be concluded from this study that the beet root, when dried in the freeze drying process, has better results as compared to the spray drying process.