Relation between Particle Size and Carotenoid Bioaccessibility in Carrot- and Tomato-Derived Suspensions

To study the effect of particle size on the relative all-E-β-carotene and all-E-lycopene bioaccessibility in carrot- and tomato-derived suspensions, respectively, an in vitro digestion approach including oil was used. Adding olive oil (2%) during digestion, especially as an oil-in-water emulsion, resulted in a substantial increase in carotenoid uptake in the micellar phase. Carotenoid bioaccessibility decreased with average particle size. Only particles smaller than an individual cell resulted in high bioaccessibility values, pointing out the importance of the cell wall as the main barrier for carotenoid uptake. The relation obtained between particle size and bioaccessibility was used to predict the carotenoid bioaccessibility in carrot- and tomato-derived purées. These predictions indicated that carotenoid bioaccessibility in plant-based food suspensions is not only determined by the cell wall integrity (related with particle size) but is also affected by interactions between the structural compounds of the complex food matrix.