Encapsulación de Aditivos para la Industria de Alimentos

Abstract

Encapsulation is a technique that is applied to protect additives or ingredients in food industry. This technique provide different qualities to food products such as conservation, fortification and controlled the release of nutrient, decreasing the hygroscopicity, flavor transformation from liquid to powder form, storage stability, improved sensory and functional properties of food products, etc. The main encapsulated additives in food industry are: flavor, acids, vitamins, minerals, species, micro-organisms, colorants, enzymes, salts, savory, fats, gases and bakery agents. The choice of coating material is the most important step to obtain an encapsulated product because the protection requirements depend on its properties. The encapsulation method is chosen according to the application, the capsulate size, the material to encapsulate, the cost, and the physic- chemical properties of coating. Studies are aimed at searching and applying new coating materials and encapsulation techniques. This article presents the concepts of en encapsulation, the techniques most applied in food industry, and some researches about different coating materials.