Development of dried functional foods: Stabilization of orange pulp powder by addition of biopolymers

The production of powdered food is an increasingly industry due to the high stability and easy handling of those products. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the addition of gum Arabic (GA) in combination with bamboo fiber (BF) or cactus cladode mucilage (CM) on the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of orange pulp powder obtained by freeze drying. Additionally, the stability of the powders after 10 months of storage at 20 °C was evaluated. The results showed that the inclusion of GA with BF or CM to the orange puree previous to freeze drying improved their chemical and physical stability. The addition of solutes increased the glass transition temperature and made the samples more stable, without problems of collapse or caking during the storage. Functionally, the combination GA-BF resulted a better option since this formulation maintained better its antioxidant and antiradical properties over time.