Functional Food Ingredients Production Using Green Technologies

Abstract

This chapter discusses the production of functional food ingredients using green technologies. The main categories of functional food ingredients are bioactive compounds, such as phenolics, antioxidants, vitamins, prebiotic and probiotic compounds, and essential oils. The processes to obtain functional ingredients play an important role in maintaining not only their biological functionality but also their quality and sensory attributes. The conventional methods for functional ingredients recovery were different extraction techniques, such as hydrodistillation, steam distillation or Soxhlet extraction. The main drawbacks of these techniques are the chemical modifications of the functional ingredients due to the high temperatures involved, the formation of unwanted by-products due to thermal degradation and hydrolysis as well as the presence of organic solvents which are often toxic. Emerging or novel extraction methods often called ‘Green Technologies’ offer various advantages, such as the ability to work at relatively low temperatures, the reduced equipment size, ease of use, speed and low solvent consumption; all of which contribute to reducing environmental impact and cost. The conventional and green production technologies for each functional ingredient category are described and the characteristics of the ingredients produced using green technologies are compared to those produced traditionally.