Recent Advances in Encapsulation for Food Applications

Abstract

Food-related research is closely related to health. The close relationship between food and health has also been translated to consumers, who now not only pay more attention to their lifestyles and diets but are also aware that the food they consume could play a role in preventing chronic diseases and improving their health. In this sense, food industries are interested in developing new food matrices using modern solutions and techniques [1]. Encapsulation has become an interesting tool to boost functional food design with biotechnological and bioactive applications, which is of significant interest to the food industry [2,3,4]. Encapsulation is a technology used for protecting certain substances (like bioactive molecules) and allowing their controlled release, especially in matrices in which these substances could not otherwise be incorporated [5,6,7].