Flavors and essential oils have found their applications in foods as taste and aroma enhancers, preservatives, and health promoters that possess several health attributes including but not limited to antimicrobial, antioxidant, antiviral, antimutagenic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties. However, their instability, low solubility, and volatility make their utilization challenging during processing. Delivery strategies such as micro/nanoencapsulation in biopolymeric carriers or colloidal systems can preserve these ingredients from loss during processing, enhance their efficacy when applied in foods, and enable achieving their controlled release and increased bioavailability during digestion.
Understanding the possibility of applying novel strategies for the delivery of flavors and essential oils can provide new insights into the design of food products with enhanced nutritional values. Delivery systems that use food-grade and biocompatible lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins have been designed for food formulations. For example, emulsions stabilized by biopolymers (Pickering emulsions), liposomes, nano-structured
lipid carriers, spray-dried or freeze-dried particles, inclusion complex with natural or modified cyclodextrins, and electrospun nanofibers have been utilized for the delivery of essential oils in food products. For the selection of an appropriate delivery technique, specific attention should be devoted to the properties of flavors and essential oils, functionality, and cost-efficiency of the selected materials for the design of the delivery system, and the efficiency in terms of loading capacity. While consideration of these factors for designing appropriate and stable delivery systems that can enhance in vitro/ in vivo uptake of these ingredients without cytotoxic effects is crucial, the preservation of organoleptic and sensory properties of functional foods with nutritional value must be also taken into account.
This research topic is focused on the application of novel systems for the delivery of flavors and essential oils to design functional foods. We welcome original research articles with the main focus on:
• Physical or chemical properties of food flavors and essential oils and their health properties in relation to the developed delivery strategies
• Application of biopolymeric materials, e.g. proteins, poly/oligosaccharides and their complexes in delivery systems
• Inclusion complex of flavors and essential oils with natural/modified type cyclodextrins and electrospun polymeric/ polymer-free nanofibers or nanowebs
• The colloidal delivery systems, including but not limited to micro/nanoemulsions, Pickering emulsions, liposomes, and solid-lipid micro/nanoparticles (SLNs/SLMs).
• The application of innovative spray/freeze-drying techniques and microcapsules or nanoparticles for delivery of flavors and essential oils
• The addition of flavors and essential oils as fortificants via designed systems to produce functional foods
• Analytical evaluation and sensory aspects of the produced functional foods
• In vitro/ in vivo digestion and assessment of bioaccessibility/ bioavailability of flavors and essential oils and cell viability and cytotoxicity tests
• Assessment of the feasibility of the designed systems for the development at pilot/large-scale
Flavors and essential oils have found their applications in foods as taste and aroma enhancers, preservatives, and health promoters that possess several health attributes including but not limited to antimicrobial, antioxidant, antiviral, antimutagenic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties. However, their instability, low solubility, and volatility make their utilization challenging during processing. Delivery strategies such as micro/nanoencapsulation in biopolymeric carriers or colloidal systems can preserve these ingredients from loss during processing, enhance their efficacy when applied in foods, and enable achieving their controlled release and increased bioavailability during digestion.
Understanding the possibility of applying novel strategies for the delivery of flavors and essential oils can provide new insights into the design of food products with enhanced nutritional values. Delivery systems that use food-grade and biocompatible lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins have been designed for food formulations. For example, emulsions stabilized by biopolymers (Pickering emulsions), liposomes, nano-structured
lipid carriers, spray-dried or freeze-dried particles, inclusion complex with natural or modified cyclodextrins, and electrospun nanofibers have been utilized for the delivery of essential oils in food products. For the selection of an appropriate delivery technique, specific attention should be devoted to the properties of flavors and essential oils, functionality, and cost-efficiency of the selected materials for the design of the delivery system, and the efficiency in terms of loading capacity. While consideration of these factors for designing appropriate and stable delivery systems that can enhance in vitro/ in vivo uptake of these ingredients without cytotoxic effects is crucial, the preservation of organoleptic and sensory properties of functional foods with nutritional value must be also taken into account.
This research topic is focused on the application of novel systems for the delivery of flavors and essential oils to design functional foods. We welcome original research articles with the main focus on:
• Physical or chemical properties of food flavors and essential oils and their health properties in relation to the developed delivery strategies
• Application of biopolymeric materials, e.g. proteins, poly/oligosaccharides and their complexes in delivery systems
• Inclusion complex of flavors and essential oils with natural/modified type cyclodextrins and electrospun polymeric/ polymer-free nanofibers or nanowebs
• The colloidal delivery systems, including but not limited to micro/nanoemulsions, Pickering emulsions, liposomes, and solid-lipid micro/nanoparticles (SLNs/SLMs).
• The application of innovative spray/freeze-drying techniques and microcapsules or nanoparticles for delivery of flavors and essential oils
• The addition of flavors and essential oils as fortificants via designed systems to produce functional foods
• Analytical evaluation and sensory aspects of the produced functional foods
• In vitro/ in vivo digestion and assessment of bioaccessibility/ bioavailability of flavors and essential oils and cell viability and cytotoxicity tests
• Assessment of the feasibility of the designed systems for the development at pilot/large-scale
