Ionic liquids (ILs) have been extensively used in many research and industry fields, including chemical and pharmaceutical applications. Nevertheless, during past years, some works revealed that those green solvents in fact could present certain toxicity levels. This is the reason why some biocompounds from natural sources, such as choline, amino acids, and organic acids, for synthesis of ILs have showed to be alternatives. This means that there is evidence that ILs with low or nontoxic effects could be synthesized, possibly overcoming the major drawback of using them in the food industry. Applications of these third generation ILs, or even the most common ILs, in food processes are scarce and mainly focused on extraction processes and chemical analysis methods. These works have proven that, considering the physical properties of ILs of interest for the food industry such as melting profile, solubility, viscoelasticity, and high biocompatibility, when compared to those commonly used, ILs are alternatives for use in the design of food products and processes. In this context, the present review provides an overview of applications of ILs in the food industry reported to date in the literature, disclosing their synthesis with natural biocompounds. Also, it proposes new applications in the food and bioproducts industries based on the main trends of the recent literature.

The goal of this work was to select the best combination of encapsulants for the microencapsulation of oregano essential oil by spray dryer with the addition of Arabic gum (AG), modified starch (MS) and maltodextrin (MA). The simplex-centroid method was used to obtain an optimal objective function with three variables. Analytical methods for carvacrol quantification, water activity, moisture content, wettability, solubility, encapsulation efficiency (ME) and oil retention (RT) were used to evaluate the best combination of encapsulants. The use of AG as a single wall material increased ME up to 93%. Carvacrol is the major phenolic compound existent in the oregano essential oil. Carvacrol exhibits a maximum concentration of 57.8% in the microparticle with the use of 62.5% AG and 37.5% MA. A greater RT (77.39%) was obtained when 74.5% AG; MS 12.7% and 12.7% MA were applied, and ME (93%) was improved with 100% of gum.

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Protic ionic liquids (PILs) have emerged as promising compounds and attracted the interest of the industry and the academy community, due to their easy preparation and unique properties. In the context of green chemistry, the use of biocompounds, such as fatty acids, for their synthesis could disclose a possible alternative way to produce ILs with a low or nontoxic effect and, consequently, expanding their applicability in biobased processes or in the development of bioproducts. This work addressed efforts to a better comprehension of the complex solid-[liquid crystal]-liquid thermodynamic equilibrium of 20 new PILs synthesized by using fatty acids commonly found in vegetable oils, as well as their rheological profile and self-assembling ability. The work revealed that their phase equilibrium and physical properties are significantly impacted by the structure of the ions used for their synthesis. The use of unsaturated fatty acids and bis(2-hydroxyethyl)ammonium for the synthesis of these biobased ILs led to a drastic decreasing of their melting temperatures. Also, the longest alkyl chain fatty acids promoted higher self-assembling and more stable mesophases. Besides their sustainable appeal, the marked high viscosity, non-Newtonian profile, and very low critical micellar concentration values of the PIL crystals here disclosed make them interesting renewable compounds with potential applications as emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, or biolubricants.

In this study, the physical and thermal properties of essential oil microparticles of oregano (Origanum vulgare L.) dried via spray drying were examined. The product was characterized by morphology, mean diameter, particle size distribution, moisture sorption curve, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The process promoted the formation of spherical capsules with high polydispersity. The isotherm exhibited type II behavior (sigmoidal curve), and the best fit was obtained by the Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer (GAB) model (E = 6.748%). The DSC analysis showed that the increase equilibrium moisture content reduced the Tg value of the microparticles (164.47–91.29C). The samples stored at low humidity resulted in more thermally stable particles, and the samples with equilibrium moisture content of 4.74% showed higher thermal stability. Practical Applications The applications of essential oils with relevant antioxidant activities, such as oregano essential oil, as a food additive is limited in the conventional form, due to their fast degradation triggered by temperature, light, presence of oxygen and humidity, among others. The encapsulation technique by spray drying has been successfully used to overcome this drawback. However, the spray‐dried products may present some technological problems, such as high hygroscopicity and low resistance when subjected to high temperatures. The evaluation of microparticle stability is a relevant and important issue when desiring to ensure their quality and application. Studies of the functional properties such as hygroscopicity, sorption behavior and thermal resistance determine the ideal conditions for the storage of this type of product.

This study evaluated the influence of the powdered bioaroma of Swiss cheese on the technical and sensory qualities of cheese bread. The methodology of the internal preference mapping was applied. The results revealed that cheese breads containing powdered bioaroma of Swiss cheese showed high sensorial quality in terms of aroma, flavour, global acceptance and intent to purchase. The addition of the powdered bioaroma positively influenced the texture, the main parameter of acceptance. The technical quality parameters of density and water activity were constant with increasing flavouring concentration, except for samples with 6.6% Swiss cheese bioaroma powder that showed higher values of density. The multidimensional preference analysis confirmed the anova results, allowing for the clear observation of the segmentation of consumers according to the sensory characteristics of the samples (0.0, 2.2, 4.4 and 6.6% bioaroma). Sensory analysis showed that consumers preferred samples having 6.6% bioaroma.

Protic ionic liquid crystals (PILCs) obtained from natural sources are promising compounds due to their peculiar properties and sustainable appeal. However, obtaining PILCs with higher thermal and mechanical stabilities for product and process design is in demand and studies on such approaches using this new IL generation are still scarce. In this context, this work discloses an alternative way for tuning the physicochemical properties of ILCs by mixing PILs. New binary mixtures of PILs derived from fatty acids and 2-hydroxy ethylamines have been synthesized here and investigated through the characterization of the solid-solid-[liquid crystal]-liquid thermodynamic equilibrium and their rheological and critical micellar concentration profiles. The mixtures presented a marked nonideal melting profile with the formation of solid solutions. This work revealed an improvement of the PILCs' properties based on a significant increase in the ILC temperature domain and the obtainment of more stable mesophases at high temperatures when compared to pure PILs. In addition, mixtures of PILs also showed significant changes in their non-Newtonian and viscosity profile up to 100 s, as well as mechanical stability over a wide temperature range. The enhancement of the physicochemical properties of PILs here disclosed by such an approach leads to more new possibilities of their industrial application at high temperatures.

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