Encapsulation of Red Fruit (Pandanus conoideus Lam) Oil by Co-crystallization with Different Emulsifiers as a Natural Food Colorant

Abstract

Red fruit oil is a native plant found in Papua Island with a high carotenoid concentration, thus it is considered a promising source of natural food colorant. However, as it is present in the form of oil, it is prone to oxidation and hard to dissolve in water. Hence, an encapsulation method such as co-crystallization is required. Sodium caseinate, WPI, and SPI were used in this study as a processing aid in co-crystallization with two different emulsifier to oil ratios, which are 1:5 and 1:2. The co-crystalized RFO is then subjected to three analyses, which include TCC, insolubility index, qualitative solubility, and color measurement. It was found that co-crystallization is a promising method as it does not significantly reduce the amount of carotenoid of red fruit. As for the use of emulsifiers, it was revealed that there were no significant differences between emulsifiers and TCC, as well as color. However, the utilization of WPI 1:2 was found to have a significantly higher insolubility index. On the other hand, the qualitative analysis showed that the addition of emulsifiers is beneficial since it prevents separation when the crystals are dissolved in water. Lastly, since the red color of the product is mainly attributed to the carotenoids, a correlation analysis between color and TCC was also performed. The result showed a strong, negative correlation with the L* value and a strong, positive correlation with a* value. Overall, this experiment concludes that the co-crystallization method is a promising encapsulation alternative to produce natural food colorant from RFO, although optimizations might still be necessary.