Electro-Spinning and Electro-Spraying as Innovative Approaches in Developing of a Suitable Food Vehicle for Polyphenols-Based Functional Ingredients

Abstract

With recent advances in medical and nutrition sciences, functional foods and nutraceuticals fortified with natural polyphenols have received a lot of attention from both health professionals and the common population in the last few years since their chemical structure allows them to exert various health effects (e.g., antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immune, antitumor and prebiotic properties). Nonetheless, there are several hurdles to applications of polyphenols in the food system. The most critical hurdle includes polyphenols’ tendency to lose their anti-oxidative properties or bioactive functionalities during food processing, as well as inclusion of poly-phenol compounds may impart an astringent or bitter taste, or introduce a degree of brown coloring causing serious sensorial impacts on food products. On this basis, interest has increased in understanding the development of new and efficient food vehicles as delivery systems for polyphenols-based functional ingredients. In this context, one approach that could augment the growth of polyphenols-based functional foods is electro-hydrodynamic processing, as the most versatile method to produce nanoscale fibers or particulates suitable for application in food technology by encapsulation to form nanoscale delivery systems.

Electrospinning of Microstructures Incorporated with Vitamin B9 for Food Application: Characteristics and Bioactivities

“…B9 presents associated limitations that must be considered when it is applied. The drawbacks such as low specificity and bioavailability make them suitable compounds to be studied as encapsulated agents [ 16 ]. Evangelho et al reported the high encapsulation of folic acid (in the range of 74.0% and 93.5%) by zein fibers and capsules produced by electrospinning and electrospraying methods, respectively [ 17 ].…”