Colloidal Delivery Systems for Functional Food Design

Keywords:
functional food design, colloidal systems

Abstract:
The growing demand for functional foods is largely driven by increasing knowledge of relationships between food ingredients and their impact on physiological functions and health. These insights stimulate the food industry to comply with consumers’ desire for health benefits by providing food products that promote health and reduce the risk of diseases. The design of these functional foods, however, brings enormous challenges. For example, the incorporation of functional ingredients like micronutrients or bioactive molecules can compromise the product functionality. Issues are often encountered related to solubility, taste, and stability of the functional ingredient. Providing health benefits may bring about unwanted changes in the product stability, appearance, texture, and taste due to interactions with other ingredients. However, the incorporation of soluble mineral salts in food products can cause bitter taste, lipid oxidation, color changes, and chemical instability; and if the insoluble salts are used this can bring problems with physical instability and insufficient bioavailability. In this talk, examples will be given on how these issues can be addressed using colloidal delivery systems to create a range of new functional foods.

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Nanotech 2006 Conference Program Abstract