Optimizing the Coating for Masking Conditions Process with Gum Arabic Using Box-Behnken Design (BBD) on The Properties of Masked Spirulina Powder

The coating for masking process is carried out to maintain functional properties of food product. Gum Arabic (GA) is a natural polysaccharide which can be used as a masking material in commercial food. This study aimed to investigate the effect of masking conditions such as temperature of heating, heating duration, concentration of gum and ratio spirulina to gum arabic, and develop a model to optimize the characteristics of masked spirulina powder. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) coupled with the Box-Behnken design (BBD) was employed to optimize the spirulina masking conditions. Masking process was evaluated based on moisture, crude phycocyanin content (CPC), and colour changes (ΔE) responses. The results showed a moderate positive relationship between the masking condition, with a R2 value between 0.3-0.7. The non-significant lack of fit (p>0.05) indicates that the data response would match the optimized prediction model. The optimized conditions of spirulina masking were determined in temperature heating at 50°C for 60 min, with 7 g/L gum arabic concentration and a 1:5 ratio of spirulina and gum arabic (m/v). The optimized process could reach responses, moisture of 6.54%, ΔE of 2.669, and CPC of 11.38 mg/g, respectively.