Affiliation:
1. Food Engineering Department, Uşak University 1 Eylül Campus 64100 Uşak Turkey ozguratarhan@gmail.com
2. Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua Viale dell'Università 16 35020 Legnaro (PD) Italy
3. Food Technology Institute, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, National University of Litoral 1 de Mayo 3250 3000 Santa Fe Argentina
Abstract
Proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids not only represent the most important nutritional elements in the food industry but, whenever specifically designed and fabricated into biopolymer particles systems, may add smart functionalities or turn themselves into advanced and safe nutraceutical delivery systems or become an interesting option to replace polluting food packaging. In the following chapter, the most relevant and investigated biopolymer particles systems, either protein, polysaccharide or lipid-based, will be analyzed and critically discussed in terms of their physicochemical properties, characterization methods, and quantification evaluation. Starting from their physicochemical features, such as size and morphology, optical properties, binding ability and stability, and mechanical features, that strongly affect their exploitation in the development of new food-grade systems, the most advanced and promising specifically designed biopolymer-based colloidal particulate systems will be characterized through microscopy, spectroscopic, and rheological techniques. Organoleptic properties and sensorial attributes of the final functional product will be evaluated as well. Besides qualitative assessment of biopolymer-derived functional foods and nutraceuticals, quantitative analysis provides significant and valuable information regarding the content of the active materials loaded, protected, and delivered properly. This chapter represents an up-to-date overview of the applications of food-grade biopolymer particulate systems focusing on the critical physicochemical properties, characterization, and quantitative analysis of biopolymer-derived functional foods and nutraceuticals on an industrial scale.
Publisher
The Royal Society of Chemistry