Quantitative assessment of the rehydration behaviour of three dairy powders in a stirred vessel

This paper is an extension of a qualitative descriptive approach for characterising the rehydration behaviour of powders in a stirred vessel, presented by Mitchel et al. [1]. It incorporates a quantitative assessment by measuring the percentage of initial powder added that floats, clumps, disperses and dissolves at given agitation speeds and times. This assessment is applied to three dairy powders: skim milk, sodium caseinate and cream milk powders. It also is applied to investigate the effect of temperature on rehydration behaviour. The quantitative dimension provides a more precise numeric characterisation which compliments the qualitative description. The methodology can be applied to comparing the rehydration behaviour of different powders, and for investigating how various factors influence rehydration behaviour, such as water temperature, pH, powder concentration and agglomeration.