Production of spray-dried honey powder and its application in bread

Honey is a natural sweetener with various beneficial properties including anti-oxidant and anti-microbial activity. Retrograded starch is known to have hypocholesterolemic effects and act to inhibit fat accumulation. Honey powder produced using retrograded starch can be used as an alternative to sucrose in many bakery products like bread. The objectives of this study were to produce a honey powder containing retrograded starch, characterize the powder and use it as an alternative to sucrose in bread formulations. The honey powder was produced by spray drying honey using retrograded starch as a drying agent. The spray dried honey powder was characterized for moisture and sugar contents and color. Three bread formulations were prepared with (1) 100% liquid honey (HNY), (2) 50% substitution of sugar with honey powder (SHP) and (3) 100% honey powder (HP). A bread formulation prepared with only sugar was used as a control (S). Breads produced from all four formulations were analyzed for loaf volume, weight loss, density, specific volume, moisture content, texture, and freezable water. Triplicate experiments were conducted and data were statistically analyzed at á = 0.05. The dried honey powders contained glucose between 10.39±0.35 and 11.58±0.29 g/100g, fructose 12.07±0.49 and 15.14±0.29g/100g, sucrose 0.05±0.01 and 0.21±0.13g/100g and maltose 0.60±0.08 and 1.27±0.62g/100g. Among the bread samples HP showed highest loaf volume (mL) at 1462±45 while SHP, HNY and control showed decreasing loaf volumes at 1303±199, 1155±91 and 1100±66, respectively. All bread samples showed an increase in firmness and HP had a lower rate of staling than the other bread samples during storage. Control bread samples contained more freezable water (g/g solid) at 0.21±0.003 than HNY, SHP, and HP which had 0.20±0.003, 0.19±0.01 and 0.13±0.01, respectively. The study demonstrated that spray dried honey powder with retrograded starch could be used as a substitute for sucrose in baking bread.