ABSTRACT
Increasing consumption of functional foods has been proposed as an alternative to classical pharmacology for improving public health. Such foods contain bioactive nutrients, that is, vitamins, polyphenols, probiotics, and peptides that offer benets beyond basic nutritional functions, including the possibility for delaying and preventing chronic diseases. However, many of these nutrients are poorly soluble in water and sensitive to environmental factors associated with food processing or the gastrointestinal tract. They must therefore be encapsulated using effective carriers in order to make them compatible with food product systems and to provide protection against destructive factors.1 Except in the case of bioactive molecules dissolved in the inner phase of an emulsion-based carrier, entrapped bioactive nutrients generally interact with the carrier material. Clarication of the underlying interaction mechanisms is therefore important for the development of effective carriers as delivery systems for bioactive nutrients.
