INNOVATIVE ENCAPSULATION TECHNOLOGY OF FOOD SYSTEMS USING A BY-PRODUCT OF DAIRY PRODUCTION

Currently, promising innovative direction in the food production technology is the use of techniques of "molecular gastronomy", allowing to modify the consumer properties of traditional foods. One of the techniques of this direction is the technology of "spherification" - the process of encapsulation of various food masses (sauces, juices, extracts, etc.). This technology will allow not only to use it as a tool of innovative management in the restaurant business, but also to expand the field of application of encapsulation in connection with the use of structure-forming agents of domestic production and by-products of the dairy industry. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of various factors on the process of encapsulation of food masses: generation of alginate shell when using curd whey as a capsule-forming medium. Methods of instrumental analysis are used in the work. Determination of the qualitative composition and identification of the test ingredients for encapsulation was carried out by IR-Fourier spectrometry. Capsules were prepared by axially feeding into the curd whey of sodium alginate solutions through a device for producing encapsulated products with a fixed size of the nozzle outlets. The results of determining the qualitative composition of the binary system "sodium alginate - curd whey" presumably indicate the complexation of polymers present in the system. It was found that in order to obtain a capsule shape close to a roundly regular one, the concentration of sodium alginate in the encapsulated solution should be between 0.8% and 1.2%. With an increase in the outlet diameter, and also with an increase in the concentration of the structure-forming agent in the encapsulated solution, an increase in the diameter of capsules was observed. The diameter of capsules obtained under the given conditions ranged from 3.7 to 5.7 mm. Generalization of the experiment results served as the basis for developing the technology of encapsulated food products based on the "spherification" method by diffusion of the cross-linking ion (Ca2+) from an external reservoir (curd whey) into a capsular liquid containing sodium alginate. Process conditions for the production of encapsulated food products with specified consumer properties have been established.