Development and evaluation of a method to characterize the solubility of high-protein dairy powders using an ultrasonic flaw detector

Abstract

High-protein dairy powders are added to a variety of products to improve nutritional, functional, and sensory properties. To have the intended properties, the powder must be soluble. The solubility is effected by processing storage, and dissolution conditions, as well as the type of powder. Various tests are used to determine solubility, but they are time-consuming and subjective. Literature has shown that ultrasound spectroscopy can characterize the solubility of high-protein dairy powders, but it requires expensive equipment and skilled technicians. An economical alternative is to use an ultrasonic flaw detector, which is commonly used in the construction industry. For this study, an ultrasonic flaw detector based method was developed to characterize the solubility of high protein dairy powders. To evaluate the method, commercially available milk protein concentrate (MPC) was obtained and stored at 25°C and 40°C and stored for four weeks to produce powders with different dissolution properties. To test the powders, a 5% (w/w) concentration of powder was added to water. A focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) and solubility index were used as a reference method. After powder addition, data was collected at regular intervals for 1800s. The FBRM and solubility index showed that the powders lost solubility as the storage time and temperature increased. From the ultrasound data, one parameter was extracted from the relative velocity and three parameters were extracted from the attenuation data. A soluble powder had a low relative velocity standard deviation from 900-1800s, high area under the attenuation curve, low peak time, and high peak height. The ultrasonic flaw detector detected differences in solubility before the solubility index. When testing MPC with protein contents ranging from 85% to 90% and at a dissolution temperature of 40°C and 48°C, data from the ultrasonic flaw detector and FBRM showed that the solubility decreased as the protein content increased and increasing the dissolution temperature improved the solubility of the powder. Overall, the ultrasonic flaw detector can characterize the solubility of high-protein dairy powders.