Abstract
The use of natural carotenoids as food colorants is an important trend of innovation in the industry due to their low toxicity, their potential as bio-functional ingredients, and the increasing demand for natural and organic foods. Despite these benefits, their inclusion in food matrices presents multiple challenges related to their low stability and low water solubility. The present review covers the main concepts and background of carotenoid inclusion complex formation in cyclodextrins as a strategy for their stabilization, and subsequent inclusion in food products as color additives. The review includes the key aspects of the molecular and physicochemical properties of cyclodextrins as complexing agents, and a detailed review of the published evidence on complex formation with natural carotenoids from different sources in cyclodextrins, comparing complex formation methodologies, recovery, inclusion efficiency, and instrumental characterization techniques. Moreover, process flow diagrams (PFD), based on the most promising carotenoid-cyclodextrin complex formation methodologies reported in literature, are proposed, and discussed as a potential tool for their future scale-up. This review shows that the inclusion of carotenoids in complexes with cyclodextrins constitutes a promising technology for the stabilization of these pigments, with possible advantages in terms of their stability in food matrices.
Highlights
Pigments and dyes play an important role in the food industry as enhancers of homogeneity and stability of color and appearance of the products
The present review covers the basic concepts and literature related to the use of cyclodextrin/carotenoid inclusion complexes formation as an encapsulation method for this type of natural pigments and sets a basis for future studies focused on the use of this strategy for the enhancement of the solubility and the stability of carotenoids from plant sources, under an industrial perspective
A few components can be used as a substrate for this purpose, for example β-cyclodextrin and β-lactoglobulin. It gives the encapsulated substance high stability and provides high encapsulation yields. This approach has been explored for the encapsulation of carotenoids; this review focuses on inclusion complexes formed with cyclodextrins, especially β-cyclodextrin, due to their larger commercial availability, and its proven ability to protect and increase solubility of carotenoids in aqueous matrices [9,12]
Summary
Pigments and dyes play an important role in the food industry as enhancers of homogeneity and stability of color and appearance of the products. Several authors have employed encapsulation with β-cyclodextrin since it is a molecule of great commercial interest, cheaper compared to its α and γ counterparts, and allows the encapsulation of hydrophobic molecules as it has a non-polar center due to the arrangement of the internal hydrogens of the truncated cone, while increasing the hydrophilicity of these molecules due to the conformation of the external hydrogens [9,10] Another benefit of using this molecule in the food industry is its toxicity as it is considered a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) molecule by the FDA [11]. The present review covers the basic concepts and literature related to the use of cyclodextrin/carotenoid inclusion complexes formation as an encapsulation method for this type of natural pigments and sets a basis for future studies focused on the use of this strategy for the enhancement of the solubility and the stability of carotenoids from plant sources, under an industrial perspective
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