Preparation of spray-dried soybean oil body microcapsules using maltodextrin: Effects of dextrose equivalence

Spray-drying can stabilize high-moisture-content oil bodies (OBs) against adverse environmental conditions and improve the nutritional value of foods containing OBs. This study investigates the effect of the dextrose equiv-alent (DE) of maltodextrin (MD) on the physicochemical properties and oxidative stability of soybean OB mi-crocapsules during spray-drying. Adding MD to OB microcapsules reduced the surface-oil content and improved the drying yield and encapsulation efficiency. Microcapsules produced by MD having a DE of 10 (MD 10) returned the highest microencapsulation yield (88.84 g/100 g) and efficiency (93.41 g/100 g). OBs stabilized by MD 10 (OB-MD 10) also exhibited optimal water content, water activity, reconstitutability, hygroscopicity, density, and flowability. The addition of MD 10 reduced the size and narrowed the size distribution of micro-capsules, thereby reducing agglomeration. Furthermore, MD 10 produced a more effective interfacial barrier, thereby improving the thermal and oxidative stability of the microencapsulated OBs, which can be explained by the molecular structure of the carrier. MD 10 was found to be the most effective wall material for stabilizing OBs. This work establishes spray-drying as a promising method for the industrial production and application of OBs as functional oil products that can carry biologically active ingredients.