Novel Technologies Based on Supercritical Fluids for the Encapsulation of Food Grade Bioactive Compounds

Abstract

In recent years, the demand for nutritive, functional and healthy foods has increased. This trend has induced the food industry to investigate novel technologies able to produce ingredients with enhanced functional and physicochemical properties. Among these technologies, one of the most promising is the encapsulation based on supercritical fluids. Thanks to the inherent absence of organic solvent, the low temperature of the process to reach a supercritical state and the capacity to dissolve lipid soluble bioactives, the encapsulation with supercritical carbon dioxide represents a green technology to produce several functional ingredients, with enhanced stability, high load and tailored protection from environmental factors. Furthermore, from the fine-tuning of the process parameters like temperature, pressure and flow rate, the resulting functional ingredient can be easily designed to tailor the controlled release of the bioactive, or to reach specific levels of taste, odor and color. Accordingly, the aim of the present review is to summarize the state of the art of the techniques based on supercritical carbon dioxide for the encapsulation of bioactive compounds of food interest. Pros and cons of such techniques will be highlighted, giving emphasis to their innovative aspects that could be of interest to the food industry.

Pharmaceutical Applications of Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Emulsions for Micro-/Nanoparticle Formation

“…Through these multilateral studies in the food science field, several supercritical extraction applications mainly for food products, ingredients, and nutraceuticals (e.g., extraction of caffeine from coffee and tea, purification of nutraceutical materials such as aroma oil, essential fatty acids, natural vitamins, and removal of pesticides from agricultural product) performed in lab-scale have eventually scaled up to production on pilot scale and even commercial scale [114]. Although the solvent-removal and particle-formation mechanisms are completely different from those of SFEE, PGSS, and pressurized gas expanded (PGX) technologies, SCF-based particle formation processes have also been successfully commercialized in the food industry [113][114][115][116][117][118][119]. Fortunately, we can take advantage of these successful commercialization examples in industrial food field and use them for commercial development in the pharmaceutical field.…”

Biopesticide Encapsulation Using Supercritical CO2: A Comprehensive Review and Potential Applications

“…Among the chemical processes, the most explored are emulsion polymerization, miniemulsion, melt-dispersion, in situ polymerization, and coacervation. As for the physical processes, spray drying, fluidized bed coating, and ionic gelation encompass the most documented encapsulation techniques for biopesticides and natural substances that have the potential to be biopesticides [ 7 , 35 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ] ( Table 2 ).…”

“…One of the main challenges of using SFT is the solubility or insolubility between the active substance and the carrier material in the supercritical fluid, especially CO 2 because it indicates the amount of active compound that can be entrapped in the process. Once the solubility data is well-known, the shelf life can be assessed, since it is possible to understand the susceptibility of the active compound to degradation processes by segregation out of the carrier [ 45 ].…”

Preparation and Characterization of Instant Casein Phosphopeptide by Supercritical Fluid Assisted Atomization

“…Due to the superior properties of the SCFs, SCF micronization technology has attracted a growing interest in both scientific and industrial communities, and it is widely used in functional material micronization, especially in pharmacy. Conventionally, the technology is classified into four groups: the rapid expansion of supercritical solutions (RESS) [ 12 ], the precipitation from gas saturated solution (PGSS) [ 13 ], the supercritical antisolvent precipitation (SAS) [ 14 ], and the supercritical fluids assisted atomization (SAA) [ 15 , 16 ]. Compared with other SCF technologies, the SAA technology is considered as one of the most promising micronization techniques [ 17 , 18 ].…”