Micro- and Nanoemulsion Delivery of Nutritional Ingredients

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for functional and healthy foods by the consumer. Hence, the food industries are involved in developing novel food and beverage products by fortifying with nutritional ingredients such as vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, iron, antioxidants, minerals, etc. It has been well known that these ingredients are found to have poor solubility and stability during food formulation. Emulsion-based delivery systems are found to be more useful for the delivery of these nutritional ingredients into foods and it can be combined with other encapsulation techniques such as spray drying and freeze drying, etc. The problem in the conventional emulsion is that it is very susceptible to coalescence, which results in poor stability. Hence, the development of multiple emulsion getting more attention due to their high biocompatibility and biodegradability. Another promising emulsion system for the delivery of nutritional ingredients is nanoemulsion. Due to its smaller droplet size nanoemulsion offer the wide application in food and beverage products. But there is a lack of scientific evidence of stability and functionality of nanoemulsion-based food products. This chapter covers general aspects of emulsion, types of properties and characterization, micro- and nanoemulsion for delivery of nutritional ingredients that includes lipids, protein, carbohydrate, and minerals; micro- and nanoemulsion-based products available in the market; and challenges and future prospects.