Spray drying technology for producing fruit powders from tomatoes and tamarillo

Postharvest losses in tomato are a major problem in the market supply chain of small farm holders in India. Spray drying is an effective postharvest technology used for making fruit powders with long shelf life. The spray drying behaviour of different tomato cultivars and tamarillo was studied with continuous observation of parameters like feed flow rate, setting of inlet and outlet temperature and addition of malt dextrin using a commercial scale spray drier located in Gandhigram trust under a public-private-partnership mode study linked with Aruna Agro Agencies Ltd. Theni. Tomatoes were collected from growers of Oddanchatram (Indam-Ruchi), Dindigul (Co-3) and Theni (PKM-1) and tamarillo (Red) and (Yellow) from Kodaikanal growers were used. With the feed rate of 80 mL min^-1 in to the atomizer, addition of 40 g malt dextrin in 1 L pulp, controlled by a peristaltic pump, inlet air temperatures of 160°C for tomato and 164°C for tamarillo at a constant outlet temperature of 90°C were observed as the optimum conditions for the maximum recovery of tomato and tamarillo fruit powders.