ARS | Publication request: Dehydration of berry purees to produce value-added powders of high quality for use in nutritional supplements: year 3

Submitted to: Northwest Center for Small Fruit Research Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: December 5, 2010
Publication Date: December 15, 2010
Citation: Ringer, K., Lee, J., Harbertson, J. 2010. Dehydration of berry purees to produce value-added powders of high quality for use in nutritional supplements: year 3. Northwest Center for Small Fruit Research Proceedings.

Interpretive Summary: This is a progress report for a NCSFR funded proposal on our findings to better understand small berry Radiant Zone Dehydration (RZD) process and how that impacts berry powder quality. This report focused on cranberry RZD powder produced from two starting materials (puree and juice concentrate) and different formulations to evaluate the drying qualities after reducing the amount of carrier used.

Technical Abstract: In year two of this three year proposal, we were to dry raspberry and blackberry on a freeze dryer located at the WSU pilot plant (Pullman, WA) and the Radiant Zone Dryer (RZD) at Columbia PhytoTechnology, LLC (Dallesport, WA). We instead focused on RZD processing of cranberry and raspberry because Milne Fruit Products (Prosser, WA) donated cranberry puree and juice concentrate. Additionally, because we saw relatively low losses on both dryers during the initial blueberry dehydration portion, we focused on reduction of carrier additions and the differences between puree and juice concentrate formulations. We analyzed the different cranberry formulations for improving physical characteristics, color, total phenolics, total anthocyanins, total tannins, and individual anthocyanins.