• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.41 no.6
• /
• pp.657-661
• /
• 2009

Liquid microparticulated seaweed calcium was manufactured via a wet grinding process. Thereafter, different forming agents such as cyclodextrin, gum arabic, and Na-caseinate were added to the liquid calcium, which was then spray-dried to investigate the quality of the powdered calcium treatments. The moisture contents of samples were approximately 2%. It was also determined that the different kinds of forming agents did not affect the spray drying efficiency. In addition, calcium solubility was the highest in a solution of pH 2. In buffer solution and vinegar, the powdered calcium made with gum arabic showed the highest solubility among the treatments. The calcium contents of all the powdered microparticulate seaweed calcium samples were about 28%, and calcium content was not affected by the forming agents. The spray-dried calcium powder made by spray drying with gum arabic had the highest water vapor uptake, whereas the seaweed calcium was stable in terms of water adsorption. The results of SEM observations indicated that a portion of the spray-dried calcium powders were in nano-scale after wet-grinding. Among the treatments, the use of saccharides as a forming agent resulted in the most uniform particle distribution after spray-drying.

• Food Engineering Progress
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.269-274
• /
• 2009

The main objective of this study was to establish optimum condition of wet grinding process for manufacturing microparticulated seaweed calcium. Process parameters such as concentration of forming agent, rotor speed, bead size, feed rate, and grinding time were adapted during wet-grinding of seaweed calcium. The particle size range of the raw seaweed calcium was 10-20 $\mu$m. The calcium particles were reduced to under 1 $\mu$m as nano scale after grinding. Gum arabic was suitable for forming agent and 5%(w/v) concentration was the most effective in grinding efficiency. A wet-grinding process operated at 4,000 rpm rotor speed, 0,4 mm bead size, and 0.4 L/hr feeding rate, respectively, produced less than 600 mm(>>90%)-sized particles. In batch systems, 8 cycles of grinding showed higher efficiency, but 20 min of grinding time in continuous processing was more efficient to reduce particle size than the batch processing. Based on the result, the optimum conditions of the wet grinding process were established: operation time of 20 minutes, rotor speed of 4,000 rpm, bead size of 0.4 mm, feed rate of 40 mL/min and 30% mixing ration with water. The size of the resulting ultra fine calcium particles ranged between 40 and 660 mm.