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Editorial | McClements
Structural design of edible delivery
systems
Edible systems suitable for oral delivery of
hydrophobic nutraceuticals must be fabricated
entirely from food-grade ingredients, such as
proteins, polysaccharides, lipids and minerals.
These building blocks can be assembled into a
variety of structures suitable for nutraceutical
encapsulation. Some of the most promising edible
delivery systems designed to meet the challenges
faced by the food industry are highlighted in this
section. More detailed information about these
delivery systems is given in a number of recent
reviews [2,5,6] . For the sake of clarity, the focus
will be on colloidal delivery systems suitable for
incorporation into aqueous-based food products.
Liposomes
Liposomes consist of one or more lipid bilayers assembled into a spheroid structure [7] .
They are typically fabricated using food-grade
phospholipids isolated from soy, dairy or egg
sources. Hydrophobic nutraceutical components
are incorporated within the non-polar regions
formed by the phospholipid tails in the bilayer
structures, while hydrophilic components may
be incorporated within the interior aqueous core.
& nanoemulsions
Oil-in-water emulsions and nanoemulsions contain surfactant-coated lipid droplets dispersed
within an aqueous medium. In contrast with
microemulsions, they are thermodynamically
unstable colloidal dispersions [9] . The main difference between emulsions (d > 100 nm) and
802
lipid nanoparticles
Solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) suspensions are
similar to emulsions or nanoemulsions since they
contain surfactant-coated lipid droplets dispersed
within an aqueous medium [10] . However, the
lipid phase in SLN is either fully or partially solidified, which may be useful for protecting chemically labile ingredients from chemical degradation
during storage.
Multilayer
emulsions
The functional performance of colloidal dispersions can often be extended by forming nano
laminated coatings around the particles [11] . This
is usually carried out using a layer-by-layer electrostatic deposition method; for example, a core
particle can be coated by depositing successive layers of cationic and anionic polymers. This method
has been used to control the digestion and release
of lipophilic components under GI conditions [11] .
Multiple emulsions
Water-in-oil-in-water (w1/o/w2) emulsions consist of small water droplets contained within
larger oil droplets dispersed within an aqueous
medium [12] . Multiple emulsions can be used to
encapsulate hydrophilic components within the
inner water phase (w1), which may be useful if
a system contains two hydrophilic components
that would normally adversely interact with each
other, or for taste masking of bitter bioactive
components.
particles
This kind of delivery system consists of
nutraceutical components trapped within a
biopolymer particle that is dispersed within an
future science group
Edible delivery systems for nutraceuticals: designing functional foods for improved health
aqueous medium [13] . Biopolymer particles can
be fabricated from proteins and polysaccharides
using a variety of methods, including extrusion,
emulsion-templating, coacervation, anti-solvent
and thermodynamic incompatibility approaches.
The potential of many of these delivery
systems for encapsulating, protecting and
releasing hydrophobic nutraceuticals has been
demonstrated in laboratory studies, but not
in real commercial applications. Some of the
methods currently used to fabricate delivery
systems are unlikely to be economically feasible
for large-scale production of edible delivery
systems. Many previous studies have not
demonstrated that the delivery systems produced
can be successfully incorporated into real
food products without adversely altering their
desirable properties, nor have they demonstrated
that the bioavailability of a nutraceutical is
maintained after encapsulation.
Future challenges for functional foods
The development of nutraceutical delivery
systems within the food industry faces a number
of technical, legal and commercial challenges
that must be overcome before they can be
successfully used to prevent chronic diseases.
A major challenge for the food industry is
proving the efficacy of specific nutraceutical
components at inhibiting the progression of
particular diseases. Pharmaceutical agents
can be administered in well-defined doses at
specific times, which enable researchers to carry
out studies to establish their efficacy against
specific disease symptoms or biomarkers. In
contrast, nutraceuticals are typically consumed
at relatively low levels as part of a complex diet
References
1
Espin JC, Garcia-Conesa MT, TomasBarberan FA. Nutraceuticals: facts and fiction.
Phytochemistry 68(2224), 29863008
(2007).
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