Emerging technologies applied to malt production: effect of electrohydrodynamic and heat pump drying

Abstract

Barley is one of the most important cereals, being the main material for malt production for both food and beverage industries. The malt is obtained from the controlled germination of the grains, resulting in unique flavor, healthy characteristics, and enzymatic activity. For the germination occurs, the grains need to be hydrated and, after the germination, they need to be dried. Drying is a critical step during malt production, once it ceases the modification of germination, guarantees the stability of the product and, additionally, it is responsible by important quality aspects. Electrodynamic (EHD) and heat pump drying (HPD) have been successfully applied to drying food materials, providing high-quality dried products, due to the possibility of non-thermal approach application and energy savings. However, these technologies were not evaluated in barley malt production. During the post-doctoral project, we applied emerging approaches to enhance barley malt drying, such as using pre-treatments with ultrasound and ethanol, and microwave and microwave-vacuum as alternatives to convective drying. Now, we propose evaluating other approaches (EHD, HPD) to enhance barley malt processing looking for high-quality products. Prof. Dr. Alain Le-Bail ONIRIS (France) is an internationally recognized researcher with a huge experience in food processing and starchy materials. He coordinates the CLEAN project, which aims develop and implement clean labeled functional ingredients for baking applications, being malt one of the main these ingredients. Therefore, the present project proposing a Research Internship Abroad (BEPE) as an interesting complementation to the activities already made in Brazil, and an opportunity to study the obtention of barley malt with increased quality, as well as contributing for the internationalization of the research conducted on the São Paulo State. (AU)