Why your mango powder quote should state the maltodextrin percentage
2026-10-05
Buyers comparing quotes for spray-dried mango or banana powder often find two offers a dollar or more apart per kilo and assume one supplier is simply cheaper. Frequently they are not comparing the same product at all, and the difference sits in a number neither quote mentioned: the carrier percentage.
Fruit pulp will not spray-dry on its own. The sugars in ripe mango and banana are hygroscopic and thermoplastic, so without help they soften in the drying chamber and stick to the wall instead of falling as free-flowing powder. The standard solution is a drying aid, usually maltodextrin, sometimes gum arabic or a starch derivative. It is added before atomisation and it stays in the finished product.
This has three consequences for the buyer, and all three are commercial rather than technical.
First, cost. A powder at 40 per cent carrier contains 60 per cent fruit solids. A powder at 20 per cent carrier contains 80 per cent. The second is a third more fruit per kilo, so a quote that looks a dollar higher can be the cheaper material on the basis that matters. Ask for the price per kilo of fruit solids, not just per kilo of powder, and the comparison becomes honest.
Second, labelling. Maltodextrin is an ingredient and it goes on your declaration. In most markets it must be listed, and where it is derived from wheat there are allergen implications. If you are selling a clean-label product, a high-carrier powder may be unusable regardless of price.
Third, function. Carrier affects solubility, bulk density, flowability and hygroscopicity. A powder designed for a dry blend behaves differently in a beverage line. If you are dosing volumetrically, bulk density matters as much as the fruit content.
There is a genuine alternative worth knowing about. Drum-dried fruit powder uses no carrier, giving a higher fruit content and a cleaner label, at the cost of a coarser particle and usually darker colour. Freeze-dried gives the best colour and flavour retention with no carrier at all, at several times the price. Which is right depends entirely on your application, which is why we ask what the powder has to do before quoting it.
What to put on the enquiry: the drying method you want, the maximum carrier percentage you can accept, whether the carrier source matters for allergen declaration, and the mesh and moisture your equipment needs. We will come back with the carrier stated in writing rather than leaving you to find it on the certificate of analysis after the container is booked.
We are a new exporter and we would rather be explicit about this than win an order on a comparison that was never like for like.