Chapter Seventeen - Spectroscopic and chromatographic analyses of nanoencapsulated food ingredients

Abstract

Encapsulation technology provides various opportunities in food applications. Functional ingredients incorporated into food products via micro/nanoencapsulation will have an improved sensorial and textural properties, shelf life, and health benefits. Physicochemical properties of the bioactive ingredients is very important in terms of encapsulation strategy and the nature of resultant nanostructures. Size, morphology, surface charge, chemical structure, and composition are characteristic features determining encapsulation efficiency, stability, release profile, and bioaccessibility of nanoencapsulated food ingredients. A number of spectroscopic and chromatographic tools are available to analyze nanoencapsulated nutraceuticals efficiently. UV/Vis spectroscopy successively determines the loading capacity, entrapment efficiency, and stability of nanoencapsulated bioactives. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is an accomplished technique to determine concentration, stability, release fashion, and bioavailability of the liberated nutraceuticals. Gas chromatography (GC) is also applicable to analyze critical features of volatile food components to be encapsulated. Chromatography equipped with spectroscopy, such as LC-MS and GC-MS, offers versatile approaches to analyze quantitatively nanoencapsulated food ingredients based on process efficiency, stability, structural composition, and bioaccessibility. In this chapter, after a brief description of these techniques, their application for characterization of nanoencapsulated food ingredients will be covered and discussed.