Fixing volatile flavoring agent in starch hydrolysate

A process for fixing a volatile flavoring agent selected from at least one member of the group consisting of acetaldehyde and an essential oil in a carrier matrix material of starch hydrolysates having a dextrose equivalent not greater than about 28 to impart a dry free flowing particulate configuration to said carrier fixed flavoring agent comprising:

• (a) providing an aqueous liquid containing said flavoring agent wherein when said flavoring agent comprises acetaldehyde said acetaldehyde is dissolved in water and when said flavoring agent comprises an essential oil said essential oil is emulsified as a discontinuous phase in said water, with said water in said aqueous liquid being present in an amount sufficient to dissolve the carrier material when converted to a droplet configuration and contacted with said carrier material while in particulate form at a temperature at which the process is conducted and wherein the viscosity of said aqueous liquid is not greater than about 200 cps at the temperature at which the process is conducted,
• (b) impinging droplets of said aqueous liquid containing said flavoring agent onto the surface of a bed of free flowing carrier particles whereby a portion of the carrier particles is dissolved into the aqueous portion of said aqueous liquid to form a saturated solution of the carrier material in said droplets and in a manner sufficient to substantially avoid the coalescence of the droplets,
• (c) allowing a portion of the water contained in the saturated droplets to evaporate thereby forming a continuous film of the carrier material on the surface of said droplets,
• (d) separating the resulting filmed droplets from the carrier particles after said filmed droplets have set to a particulate form which is maintained when contacted with similar filmed droplets and before the remainder of the water present therein passes through the droplet film surface to the extent that the carrier particles remaining in the carrier bed are wet thereby and caused to agglomerate, and
• (e) drying the separated filmed droplets to allow the remainder of the water present therein to preferentially pass through the film surface.