GEA Niro has developed a process to spray dry aloe vera for use in the food and cosmetics industry. Until now the therapeutic plant has been dried naturally in the sun, a fairly crude process with limited uses, or has undergone an extensive and expensive preparation for freeze drying for pharmaceutical use.
The new process bridges the gap providing a high quality powder that is suitable for use in personal care, nutraceutical and food products.
The process requires the aloe vera cactus leaves to be processed so the moisture absorbing pulp can be micro disintegrated and spray dried efficiently. The leaves are first filleted to remove the hard outer shell. What is left, the inner tissue, is made up of 98% water and just 2% tissue matter that behaves like a sponge. This means that when the aloe vera has been spray dried it will act as a thickening agent and provide texture and volume to the end product without adding calories.
The aloe vera fillet is then put through a shredder and a milling machine to create a feed that is able to be atomised, the feed pulp is heated to less than 50°C and dosed with enzymes in a reaction tank; these enzymes break down the cellulose chain reducing viscosity. The fibres are then segregated and those less than 200 microns continue in the process. Aloin, used as a bittering agent in beverages and as a pharmaceutical laxative, is extracted. The remaining pulp then goes on to be pasteurised creating a gel. After evaporation to increase the total solids of the gel it is spray dried into a fine, free flowing powder.
