In processing powdery foods, especially health foods like juice concentrates, protein supplements, soup powders, milk powders, jaggery powder, wood apple powder, etc., presence of moisture in the surrounding air can cause lumping or caking causing the tiny particles to stick or cluster together and inhibiting their free flow during processing. In addition, the presence of moisture in the air may interfere with the operation of the processing machine and obstruct the free and easy movement of the food stuff. It creates doubt and wrong perception in the mind of your end customer (s) once the final product reaches to them, which can ultimately affect your Brand Loyalty and Value.
Moisture Menace Affects Quality of Nutraceutical
Another vital part of health food is nutraceutical. It is a wide term used to describe any product derived from food sources that provides extra health benefits in addition to the basic nutritional value found in foods. Products typically claim to prevent chronic diseases, improve health, delay the aging process, and increase life expectancy. Nutraceuticals can be in the form of tablets, capsules, and powder. Many nutraceutical powders (like herbal extracts, effervescent and proteins) are extremely hygroscopic. This leads to the clustering and clogging of the powder feed to the tableting press and to high speed two piece capsule filling machines.
Many granular and powdered health foods are transferred to packaging via high velocity air streams. This process is commonly referred to as pneumatic conveying or just airveying. For food handling, the efficiency of transporting powdered, granulated or flaked materials by high velocity air streams is significantly improved by drying the air. Highly hygroscopic health food powders like wheat grass, whey powder, milk powder, soup powder, jaggery powder, protein supplements and wood apple powder make humidity control a crucial element of material handling systems.
Obviously, if moisture affects the food and the machinery in this fashion, the solution to the problem lies in surrounding the processing and manufacturing area with dry air. Humidity control is considered as an important measure during health food processing. During packing, in many instances, low RH has to be maintained for proper moisture control.
Table depicting the ambient conditions required for various health powder foods:
| Operation / Process |
°C |
°F |
Humidity RH |
| Fruit powder handling |
20-22 |
68-72 |
35% |
| Tomato powder production |
19-23 |
66-73 |
25-35% |
| Citrus crystal packaging |
27 |
81 |
15% |
| Dry soup packaging |
21 |
70 |
20% |
| Energy food packaging |
25 |
77 |
40-45% |
| Milk powder packing |
22-25 |
72-77 |
35-40% |
| Cooling of spray dried milk powder |
10 |
50 |
35-40% |
| Whey powder manufacturing/storage |
21-26 |
70-79 |
15-30% |
All these condition can be effectively maintained by using Bry-Air desiccant dehumidifier.
Bry-Air Dehumidifier – Ideal solution to all moisture problems
Bry-Air desiccant dehumidification systems ensure optimum moisture control as required by the process and are dependable, efficient and versatile. Bry-Air has been supplying humidity control equipment for various food processing applications to top notch brands like Kellogg’s, Wrigley, Cadbury, Nestle, Unilever and many more.
Bry-Air Dehumidifiers provide the smallest answer, not just in terms of size but also in terms of the space occupied and energy billing to all the massive problems involving moisture during drying, processing, packaging and storage of food. So, whether it is health food, nutraceuticals and powdery food or conventional snacks and processed food like soups, biscuits, etc., or more regular food items like sugar, milk powder, spices, tea , coffee etc., or exotic food like shiitake mushrooms and chocolates/ candies, the Bry-Air Dehumidifiers are the ideal solution for making sure that food retains its taste, color, flavour while maintaining its intrinsic hygiene.
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