Starch, Pectin, Functional Food and Food Conglutination
Starch is a natural, environmental compatible and very versatile ingredient
group playing an increasingly important role in the modern food industry.
Starch is used in its natural form, but to a greater extent in its
various modified forms, for example:
- Malto dextrin
- Glucose syrups
- Starch is a mixture of two glucose polymers which are initially enclosed
within a semicrystalline granule formed inside starch-synthesising plant
organelles.
Environmental requirements and increasing demands from the starch
industry has led Niro to develop state-of-the-art processes with minimum energy
consumption, minimized effluents loads and reduced fresh water consumption. All
this with optimal raw material utilisation for recovering starch from, for
example:
- Corn
- Sorgum
- Wheat
- Tapioca
- Rice
- Et c.
Starch processing implies hydrolysis, i.e. partial or total splitting of the
long starch molecules into smaller fragments, chemical or enzymatic processes,
refining concentration and other unit operations for obtaining the required
sweetener. Both processes and equipment are designed with respect to process
type, raw material and final product specification.
More than 40 years'
experience in world-wide industrial process development, design, construction
and maintenance of production facilities enables Niro together with other GEA
sister companies, to provide sweetener technology and equipment, tailor-made
for any specific need including:
- Liquefaction
- Saccharification
- Filtration
- Carbon Treatment
- Ion Exchange
- Evaporation / Concentration
- Crystallisation
- Isomerization
- Fractionation
- Hydrogenation
- Fluid bed drying
- Spray drying
Spray drying is Niro's core business, and perhaps the most important
continuous industrial drying technique for converting liquid sweetener
formulations into powders.
The feed is atomized into droplets that are
directed into a controlled flow of hot air. Particles are formed as moisture
evaporates from each droplet, and the dried product is discharged from the
drying chamber.
TYPES OF SWEETENER
Depending
on type of sweetener, various spray dryer designs are selected.
For low
thermoplastic and low hydroscopic sweeteners, conventional spray dryer FSDTM
designs are recommended
For more thermoplastic and hydroscopic sweeteners
like sorbitol and total sugar, the FILTERMAT® spray dryer with integrated belt
is recommended
FURTHER READING:
- Fluidized Spray Dryer - FSDTM
- FILTERMAT® dryer