Why Choose Food Research Lab's FRL as Your Food Product Development (FPD) Consultant and Partner?

There are several options in almost every product area in today’s market, and the difficulty is in coming up with unique items that stand out and connect with customers. Food Research Lab's Food Research Lab takes a holistic approach to creating food and beverage products. We define, demographically target, and build effective goods through a sequential process for category selection and comprehension. The client can visit the lab to learn the process. We offer unlimited rounds of revisions to ensure customer satisfaction. The final product prototype, along with the documentation process, including the video (through email), will be shipped to the client, and in case the client is not satisfied with the video, a food technology consultant will visit the place for the product demo at the client’s costs.

What are the different forms that you deliver the Food Product Formulations?

The food industry is witnessing a new form of consumption. Keeping that in mind, we can formulate the products in the form of ready-to-eat, ready-to-drink, ready-to-mix, ready-to-serve, and ready-to-cook food products. We use ingredients that offer an added value to the development and improve its indulgence and sustainability in terms of its functional ingredients, plant-based food dyes, and natural preservatives with a clean label.

What are the sectors Food Research Lab cover?

We cover a wide range of sectors such as soups, sauces and dips, chips, tortillas, dry beverage powder, plant-based products, masalas, puddings, instant mixes and many more.

How is sensory testing been carried out?

Our sensory examination leads to the precise formulation and recipe recommendations. We develop data-driven design models based on sensory research and customer insights. The fact-based design methodology used by Food Research Lab reduces risk and gives our clients market confidence while cutting development time in half. With our dedicated sensory lab facility, our team takes satisfaction in creating and optimizing successful products in the marketplace, generating a favourable return on investment, and developing brand advocates.

Instant Control Pressure Drop Technology (For Drying)

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Instant Control Pressure Drop Technology (For Drying)

INTRODUCTION  

Initially developed as a drying technology, Instant Controlled Pressure Drop Technology (DIC) has since been used in various other processes, including creating puffy snacks and improving texture and odour.
Multiple traditional drying techniques can be replaced by DIC to produce dried goods of higher quality with better sensory and texture characteristics. It may also be used before or in combination with various drying methods on food products.
DIC can be used with other technologies like dehydro-freezing, freezing, freeze-drying, and osmotic pretreatments like Moisture Equilibration Process (MEP) for dehydration preservation. By subjecting the material to high saturated steam pressure for a brief period, the thermomechanical technique called Instant Controlled Pressure Drop (DIC, or Détente Instantanée Controlée) causes instant water evaporation within the matrix.
This procedure is regarded as a highly effective HTST-type treatment because it involves briefly exposing the material to saturated steam, followed by an instant pressure drop that causes water to evaporate, texturise and cool the product. This effect improves food drying and kills vegetative germs and spores without affecting thermosensitive molecules or the quality of the final product. The DIC method was successfully used to treat a variety of foods and pharmaceutical goods on both a lab and an industrial scale [1].

Principle Mechanism of Heating  

This procedure begins with a brief heating stage (10–60 s) that includes a saturated steam injection at high pressure (up to 1 MPa) applied to a product first placed under a vacuum. In this step, the product is heated, and the vapour condensation increases the moisture content by 0.1 g H2O/g dry basis.
The first vacuum ensures that the steam and sample make quick contact, enhancing heat transmission. Compressed air may occasionally be used as a pressurised agent for the multicycle DIC treatment. Following the initial heating step, a sudden drop in pressure (0.5 MPa/s) towards a vacuum (3-5 kPa) over just 10–60 ms causes the product’s water to evaporate automatically, creating a large amount of vapour and significant mechanical stress that allows the product to expand.
The water’s natural evaporation also ensures quick cooling, preventing the thermal degradation of the treated products’ high-quality components. Extremely high cooling rates of 1500–2000 kW m-2 are possible. The product’s extension stress also develops a new expanded and porous structure. The improved drying process, solvent extraction, and many other functional qualities of foods are made possible by the novel structure’s increased specific surface area, mass transfer diffusivity, and product accessibility. Costs related to energy can also be decreased.

Figure 1: The process of a DIC cycle [2]

Main Components of DIC  

The product to be processed is placed within a processing vessel, an autoclave with a heating jacket.

A pneumatic valve that guarantees the almost immediate release of steam pressure from the treatment vessel to the vacuum tank.
A vacuum system comprises a cooling jacket-encased tank and a vacuum pump. The tank volume is typically 100–130 times more than the processing vessel volume, and the tank pressure is maintained at roughly 2.5-5kPa by a water ring pump.
A condensate recovery trap for extract collection [2].

Schematic Representation of a DIC reactor  

Parts of a DIC Reactor:

Treatment vessel
Controlled instant pressure drop valve
Vacuum tank with cooling jacket
Vacuum pump
Extract collection trap
Steam generator
Air compressor [2]

Figure 2: Schematic diagram of a DIC [2]

Instant Controlled Pressure-Drop Treatment on Fruits

Matrix	Objective	Applied Treatment: Pressure; Time	Optimal: Pressure; Time	Key Findings
Banana (Musa sp.)	Obtain and characterise DIC Treated banana flours	260–500 kPa; 12 to 48 s	500 kPa, 11 s	There was a 23% increase in effective diffusivity, a 290% increase in WHC *, and a 15% OHC reduction.WHC: water holding capacity; OHC: Oil holding capacity.
Strawberry (Fragaria var. Camarosa)	To study the impact of DIC on the antioxidant and crispiness of strawberry snacks	100–600 kPa; 5 s–25 s	600 kPa; 15 s	The highest crispiness: 600 kPa, 10 s Maximum Anthocyanin preservation was noted at 350 kPa; 10 s.
Berry cacti (Myrtillocactus geometrizans	To preserve the antioxidant capacity of berry cacti after DIC processing	100–450 kPa; 5–45 s	450 kPa; 25 s	DIC was an efficient method to dry berry cacti, comparable to freeze-drying.
Date (Phoenix dactylifera L.)	Obtain Zaghloul Snacks and characterise them	200–600 kPa, 9 s to 35 s	600 kPa; 22 s	146% expansion ratio achieved; 59% increase in colour intensity

Instant Controlled Pressure-Drop Treatment on Fruit Byproducts 

Matrix	Objective	Applied Treatment: Pressure; Time	Optimal: Pressure; Time	Key Findings
Cranberry pomace and seeds	Improve the product′s nutritional, hygienic, organoleptic, and convenience attributes.	200–500 kPa; 5–15 s	–	A remarkable increase in the kinetics of drying and rehydration was observed, and the natural taste was preserved.

Instant Controlled Pressure-Drop Treatment on Vegetables 

Matrix	Objective	Applied Treatment: Pressure; Time	Optimal: Pressure; Time	Key Findings
Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)	To confer a porous structure to potatoes by DIC texturing, thus facilitating the drying process at a lower water content	300 to 600 kPa, 1 cycle, for 20 s	600 kPa, 1 cycle, for 20 s	A lower value of water activity
Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.)	Effect of swell-drying of tomatoes slices on texture and rehydration	100–700 kPa; 5–45 s	400 kPa; 30 s	The firmest structure after rehydration was obtained for tomato slices and preservation of antioxidant capacity.

Impact of Instant Controlled Pressure-Drop Treatment on Cereals Drying 

Matrix	Objective	Applied Treatment: Pressure; Time	Optimal: Pressure; Time	Key Findings
Rice (Oryza sativa)	Study the effects of DIC on paddy rice	400–600 kPa; 15–40 s	500 kPa for 16 to 30 s	65%-time reduction in post-production cooking time
Wheat (Triticum spp.)	To evaluate DIC texturing on some physicochemical and nutritional properties of puffed wheat snacks products	300–500 kPa; 3–11 s	500 kPa for 7 min	A wheat grain expansion was obtained, as well as better sensorial properties.