Recovery of betanin from flume water collected from red beet filling lines

Water used in flume-transport and filling of canned beets was observed to contain 260 ug betanin/ml. Betanin concentration did not differ significantly among styles of beets being canned. Vacuum evaporation at 60° C and spray drying were investigated as means of concentration aimed at recovery of the pigment. Vacuum evaporation (to a concentration of 0.12 g betanin/100 ml) resulted in degradation of 1.94% of the betanin, and vacuum evaporation followed by spray drying degraded 13.50%. Betanin concentrations were measured spectrophotometrically using E¹₁cm= 1120.