Effect of microencapsulation on morphology, physicochemical properties and flavour profiles of solid yoghurt-flavoured bases

Yoghurt-flavoured bases have many applications in food industry, but the poor stability in the volatile compounds limits their applications. In this study, the morphology and physicochemical properties of yoghurt-flavoured base microcapsules were evaluated with four different wall materials including chitosan, β-cyclodextrin, octenyl succinate anhydride and maltodextrin solution by spray drying. The encapsulation efficiencies of these four microcapsule formulations exceeded 93%. Microcapsules produced by chitosan possessed the best physical properties with improved encapsulation efficiency and smooth microstructure, so chitosan was selected as the encapsulating material of yoghurt-flavoured bases. Compared with those without chitosan, the encapsulated yoghurt-flavoured bases with chitosan had smaller particle size, better water solubility and moisture resistance as well as better stability. Furthermore, microencapsulation and spray drying technology can preserve many volatile compounds and the proportion of ketones, aldehydes, alcohols and other compounds increased. Hence, chitosan is a microcapsule material suitable for outputting solid yoghurt-flavoured bases.