Saskatoon Berry Freeze-Drying Protocol

Fruits—“Smoky” cultivar of Saskatoon berry and rye flour type 720—were used in this work. Saskatoon berry was collected in the year 2019 from BIOGRIM company (Wojciechow, Lublin, Poland), and the rye flour was from Good Mills Poland company (Stradunia, Poland). The freeze drying pure fruit powder (FP) as additives was prepared as described previously by Lachowicz et al. [18 (link)]. Meanwhile, the freeze drying encapsulated fruit powder with maltodextrin (FPM) and inulin (FPI) as additives was prepared as described previously by Lachowicz et al. [19 (link)]. The resulting Saskatoon berry fruit was ground in Thermomix (Wuppertal, Vorkwek, Germany) at 40 °C for 10 min. For encapsulation fruit, 70% of grounded fruit (w/w) and 30% of carrier (maltodextrin or inulin) were mixed. Furth, grounded fruit and encapsulated fruit were frozen at −80 °C. Next, the freeze drying method of FP and FPM as well as FPI (≈200 g of each sample) was carried out in a freeze dryer (Christ Alpha 1–4 LSC; Germany) for 24 h at a reduced pressure of 65 Pa. The temperature in the drying chamber was −60 °C, while the heating plate reached 30 °C.