Food powder or powdery food is the most common format of dried solid food material that meets specific quality standards, such as moisture content, particle size, and particular morphology. Common powdery food products include milk powder, tea powder, cocoa powder, coffee powder, soybean flour, wheat flour, and chili powder. Powders are particulate discrete solid particles of size ranging from nanometres to millimetres that generally flow freely when shaken or tilted. The bulk powder properties are the combined effect of particle properties by the conversion of food products in solid state into powdery form for ease of use, processing and keeping quality. Various terms are used to indicate the particulate solids in bulk, such as powder, granules, flour and dust, though all these materials can be treated under powder category. These common terminologies are based on the size or the source of the materials.

The particle size, distribution, shape and surface characteristics and the density of the powders are highly variable and depend on both the characteristics of the raw materials and processing conditions during their formations. These parameters contribute to the functional properties of powders, including flowability, packaging density, ease of handling, dust forming, mixing, compressibility and surface activity.

 

Note:   The above text is excerpted from the Wikipedia article Food powder, which has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License.