Industry-Relevant Encapsulation Technologies for Food and Functional Food Production

Abstract

Despite numerous challenges, encapsulation technologies are likely to become increasingly the focus of the food industry, because of their advantages for certain applications, for example, taste masking, limiting oxidation, increasing bioavailability, or controlling the release of active ingredients in food and functional food products. This chapter gives a summary of encapsulation technologies that can be adopted by food manufacturers aiming to develop effective nutrient delivery systems. The main groups of encapsulation technologies are described and compared from the engineering aspect, that is, the impact of process conditions on resulting properties of encapsulates composition (structure, dimensions, interfacial properties, loading, and stability). Besides, their advantages and drawbacks are listed to get a critical point of view on existing and future industrial applications. Finally, along with a comprehensive review of research insights focused on the implementation of produced encapsulates in food products, this chapter provides examples of main patents based on described encapsulation technologies.