ABSTRACT
At present, food industries across the world are making a lot of efforts on utilization of the nanoemulsion technique to encapsulate, protect, and deliver bioactive compounds for food applications. The delivery of encapsulated bioactive compounds by means of the nanoemulsion technique offers substantial nutritive and therapeutic advantages. Many bioactive molecules which possess therapeutic and/or nutritive values have bioavailability constraints due to their lipophilic nature. Such bioavailability constraints can be overcome by encapsulating these bioactive molecules in nanoemulsions. Recent studies have demonstrated that therapeutic and nutritive effects of bioactive molecules have been greatly improved by means of nanoemulsions. Besides bioavailability, appearance, shelf life, color, aroma, and flavor of food products have also been improved through encapsulation of active/functional moiety into nanoemulsion systems. There are diverse areas in the food industry where nanoemulsions play an important role, such as nutraceuticals, packaging films, natural preservatives, and many more.
This chapter provides a comprehensive account on nanoemulsions from the perspective of their application in the food industry. The applicability of nanoemulsions in the food industry is highly influenced by their physicochemical characteristics that mainly include mean particle size, viscosity, optical clarity, and stability. Therefore, a general introduction, physicochemical characterization, evaluation techniques, and applicability of the nanoemulsion in food sciences are the highlights of the present chapter.
