Recent advances in encapsulation of fat-soluble vitamins using polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids: A review on delivery systems, formulation, and industrial applications.

Fat-soluble vitamins (FSVs) offer a range of beneficial properties as important nutrients in human nutrition. However, the high susceptibility to environmental conditions such as high temperature, light, and oxygen leads to the degradation of these compounds. This review highlights the different formulations underlying the encapsulation of FSVs in biopolymer (polysaccharide and protein) and lipid-based micro or nanocarriers for potential applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. In particular, the function of these carrier systems in terms of encapsulation efficiency, stability, bioavailability, and bio-accessibility is critically discussed. Recently, tremendous attention has been paid to encapsulating FSVs in commercial applications. According to the chemical nature of the active compound, the vigilant selection of delivery formulation, method of encapsulation, and final application (type of food) are the key important factors to be considered in the encapsulation of FSVs to ensure a high loading capacity, stability, bioavailability, and bio-accessibility. Future studies are recommended on the effect of different vitamin types and micro and nano encapsulate sizes on bioaccessibility and biocompatibility through in vitro/in vivo studies. Moreover, the toxicity and safety evaluation of encapsulated FSVs in human health should be evaluated before commercial application in food and pharmaceuticals.

Identification of Stingless Bee Honey Adulteration Using Visible-Near Infrared Spectroscopy Combined with Aquaphotomics.

Honey is a natural product that is considered globally one of the most widely important foods. Various studies on authenticity detection of honey have been fulfilled using visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy techniques. However, there are limited studies on stingless bee honey (SBH) despite the increase of market demand for this food product. The objective of this work was to present the potential of Vis-NIR absorbance spectroscopy for profiling, classifying, and quantifying the adulterated SBH. The SBH sample was mixed with various percentages (10−90%) of adulterants, including distilled water, apple cider vinegar, and high fructose syrup. The results showed that the region at 400−1100 nm that is related to the color and water properties of the samples was effective to discriminate and quantify the adulterated SBH. By applying the principal component analysis (PCA) on adulterants and honey samples, the PCA score plot revealed the classification of the adulterants and adulterated SBHs. A partial least squares regression (PLSR) model was developed to quantify the contamination level in the SBH samples. The general PLSR model with the highest coefficient of determination and lowest root means square error of cross-validation (RCV2=0.96 and RMSECV=5.88 %) was acquired. The aquaphotomics analysis of adulteration in SBH with the three adulterants utilizing the short-wavelength NIR region (800−1100 nm) was presented. The structural changes of SBH due to adulteration were described in terms of the changes in the water molecular matrix, and the aquagrams were used to visualize the results. It was revealed that the integration of NIR spectroscopy with aquaphotomics could be used to detect the water molecular structures in the adulterated SBH.

Simultaneous Quantitative Assessment of Ochratoxin A, Patulin, 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural, and Bisphenol A in Fruit Drinks Using HPLC with Diode Array-Fluorimetric Detection.

The analysis of regulated contaminants in fruit drinks often requires suitable validated and rapid analytical methods for cost-effective food control, and is of considerable interest among the fruit beverage industry. This study demonstrated a rapid and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography approach for the simultaneous determination of ochratoxin A (OTA), patulin (PAT), 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), and bisphenol A (BPA) in various fruit drinks. The separations were achieved using a C18 core-shell column with both photo-diode array and fluorimetric detections connected in series. A gradient system consisting of methanol and 0.1% formic acid at a flow rate of 1.2 mL min-1, thermostated at 35 °C, provided fast elution with run time <9 min. Sample pretreatment was optimised to enable extraction of all analytes from fruit drink matrices. The optimised method was validated. Correlation coefficients of R > 0.99 were achieved with detection limits of 0.5 ng mL-1 (OTA), 1.1 ng mL-1 (PAT), 7.9 ng mL-1 (HMF), and 1.0 ng mL-1 (BPA). Recoveries ranged from 82% to 99%. Good relative standard deviations for intraday retention times (≤3.54%) and peak area (≤3.5%) were achieved. The developed multi-contaminants analysis method was successfully applied to determine OTA, PAT, HMF, and BPA in various fruit drinks.

Organic Selenium as Antioxidant Additive in Mitigating Acrylamide in Coffee Beans Roasted via Conventional and Superheated Steam.

Selenium is an essential micronutrient with significant antioxidant activity promising in mitigating the formation of acrylamide during high-temperature roasting. In this study, green coffee beans pretreated with selenium (Se-coffee) were investigated on their selenium uptake, selenium retention in green and roasted beans, antioxidant activities, and formation of acrylamide during conventional and superheated steam roasting. Comparisons were made with positive (pretreated without selenium) and negative (untreated) controls. The acrylamide formation was significantly inhibited in Se-coffee (108.9-165.3 µg/kg) compared to the positive and negative controls by 73.9% and 52.8%, respectively. The reduction of acrylamide by superheated steam roasting only observed in the untreated coffee beans (negative control) by 32.4% parallel to the increase in its antioxidant activity. Selenium pretreatment significantly increased antioxidant activity of the roasted Se-coffee beans after roasting although soaking pretreatment significantly reduced antioxidant activity in the green beans. Acrylamide reduction in the roasted coffee beans strongly correlated with the change in antioxidant capacities after roasting (∆FRAP, 0.858; ∆DPPH, 0.836). The results indicate that the antioxidant properties of the organic selenium suppressed acrylamide formation during coffee roasting.

Effects of Lipid Solid Mass Fraction and Non-Lipid Solids on Crystallization Behaviors of Model Fats under High Pressure.

Different fractions of fully hydrogenated soybean oil (FHSBO) in soybean oil (10-30% w/w) and the addition of 1% salt (sodium chloride) were used to investigate the effect of high-pressure treatments (HP) on the crystallization behaviors and physical properties of the binary mixtures. Sample microstructure, solid fat content (SFC), thermal and rheological properties were analyzed and compared against a control sample (crystallized under atmospheric condition). The crystallization temperature (Ts) of all model fats under isobaric conditions increased quadratically with pressure until reaching a pressure threshold. As a result of this change, the sample induction time of crystallization (tc) shifted from a range of 2.74-0.82 min to 0.72-0.43 min when sample crystallized above the pressure threshold under adiabatic conditions. At the high solid mass fraction, the addition of salt reduced the pressure threshold to induce crystallization during adiabatic compression. An increase in pressure significantly reduced mean cluster diameter in relation to the reduction of tc regardless of the solid mass fraction. In contrast, the sample macrostructural properties (SFC, storage modulus) were influenced more significantly by solid mass fractions rather than pressure levels. The creation of lipid gel was observed in the HP samples at 10% FHSBO. The changes in crystallization behaviors indicated that high-pressure treatments were more likely to influence crystallization mechanisms at low solid mass fraction.

Optimization of palm oil physical refining process for reduction of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) ester formation.

The reduction of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) ester formation in refined palm oil was achieved by incorporation of additional processing steps in the physical refining process to remove chloroester precursors prior to the deodorization step. The modified refining process was optimized for the least 3-MCPD ester formation and acceptable refined palm oil quality using response surface methodology (RSM) with five processing parameters: water dosage, phosphoric acid dosage, degumming temperature, activated clay dosage, and deodorization temperature. The removal of chloroester precursors was largely accomplished by increasing the water dosage, while the reduction of 3-MCPD esters was a compromise in oxidative stability and color of the refined palm oil because some factors such as acid dosage, degumming temperature, and deodorization temperature showed contradictory effects. The optimization resulted in 87.2% reduction of 3-MCPD esters from 2.9 mg/kg in the conventional refining process to 0.4 mg/kg, with color and oil stability index values of 2.4 R and 14.3 h, respectively.

The effects of physical refining on the formation of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol esters in relation to palm oil minor components.

The formation of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) esters in refined palm oil during deodorisation is attributed to the intrinsic composition of crude palm oil. Utilising D-optimal design, the effects of the degumming and bleaching processes on the reduction in 3-MCPD ester formation in refined palm oil from poor-quality crude palm oil were studied relative to the palm oil minor components that are likely to be their precursors. Water degumming remarkably reduced 3-MCPD ester formation by up to 84%, from 9.79 mg/kg to 1.55 mg/kg. Bleaching with synthetic magnesium silicate caused a further 10% reduction, to 0.487 mg/kg. The reduction in 3-MCPD ester formation could be due to the removal of related precursors prior to the deodorisation step. The phosphorus content of bleached palm oil showed a significant correlation with 3-MCPD ester formation.