(380b) Measuring Food Powders Electrical Properties as a Result of Humidity Content

Granular materials and fine powders are widely used in many industrial applications. In particular, excipients are necessary in dry powder pharmaceutical formulations, such as dry powder inhalers (DPIs), tablets and capsules. Thus, any recommendations regarding their behaviour and the effects of using of additives could have significant consequences for the optimisation of industrial processes, including avoiding technical issues like granulation, noncompliance and non-conformity.

In this paper, we show how the influence of anti-static agent additions affect excipients behaviour. For this purpose, two lactose products provided by the Meggle company (Germany) were used during this study: Inhalac 400 and Flowlac 90. The anti-static agent studied is a commercial talc powder (brand “Care”). The influence of Talc addition in the lactose products will be studied with five different talc mass fractions 0%, 5, 10, 15 and 20%.

Electrical properties are finding increasing application in agriculture and food processing industries. Knowledge of dielectric properties of foods as a function of moisture content and temperature is essential in the design and control of drying systems.