Designing delivery systems for functional ingredients by protein/polysaccharide interactions

Designing delivery systems (or called encapsulation systems) for functional ingredients recently has received growing interest in the food industry, which aims to encapsulate, protect and control the release of the active ingredients. New challenges emerge when developing food-grade delivery systems, such as the requirements for clean-label ingredients, and the cost for large-scale production. The structural and physicochemical attributes of food proteins (such as ligand-binding, surface activity, self-assembly, gelation, environmental-response behaviour, and electric characteristics) can greatly facilitate the functionality of delivery systems. Moreover, combination of polysaccharides with proteins can further modify and extend the functional performance of proteins. Because of the potential importance of protein/polysaccharide systems in food engineering and novel food formulations, various functional colloids over a large length scale based on protein-polysaccharide interactions were fabricated. By manipulating the protein or/and polysaccharide interaction either at the oil-water interface or in the bulk, a variety of promising delivery systems for functional ingredients can be prepared. Upon encapsulation, enhanced stability, aqueous dispersibility, controlled release, viability, bioavailability, as well as controlled lipid digestion can be achieved.