Abstract: The nutritional components of egg white-derived enteral nutrient powder (ENP), previously developed by our research group, were analyzed, and the optimal reconstitution conditions of ENP were investigated. Furthermore, the changes in reconstitution characteristics, color and fat oxidation under different storage temperatures (4, 25 ℃ and 37 ℃) and time (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 months) were examined in order to evaluate its quality stability. The results showed that ENP, being nutritiously well-balanced, could meet the basic nutritional needs of human body. Reconstituting ENP in a?10-fold volume excess of hot water at 70 ℃ was found to be the optimal reconstitution conditions. In terms of quality stability, when stored at low temperature (4 ℃), ENP showed no significant changes in reconstitution characteristics or color, and maintained good reconstitution stability and sensory quality compared with the control. After 5 months of storage at high temperature (37 ℃), the solubility, dispersibility, agglomeration rate and stability coefficient of ENP increased by -1.47%, 10.48%, 89.25% and -3.86%, respectively, but the fluidity outside and inside nasal feeding tubes did not change significantly (P > 0.05). The changes in reconstitution characteristics was attributed to the significant increase in the particle diameter (P < 0.05). After storage for more than 3 months, ENP exhibited a decrease in L* value and an increase in b* value, indicating that the color was darkened and became more yellow during high-temperature storage. For each storage temperature, the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value increased to different degrees with prolonged storage time, indicating that the fat in ENP was inevitably oxidized, while it increased by less than 15% after 5 months of storage at low temperature. The accelerated storage test showed that ENP had a shelf life of up to 18 months. In summary, low temperature storage is beneficial to reduce the quality loss of ENP. It can maintain good quality stability during storage making it widely applicable.

Key words: enteral nutrient powder, storage, reconstitution characteristics, quality stability