Electrosprayed particle technology for enhanced encapsulation of bioactives, vitamins, and natural colorants

Overview

This solution leverages electrospraying, an emerging non-thermal particle production technology, to create sub-micron encapsulant particles that protect sensitive food ingredients. The technology addresses key challenges in the food and nutraceutical industries by enhancing the encapsulation efficiency of bioactives, vitamins, and botanicals, while preserving the colour of natural colorants. By eliminating the need for heat during processing, the technology achieves higher retention of colourings, vitamins, and flavours compared to conventional methods. Additionally, electrospraying requires up to 20% less energy than spray-drying, offering both quality and sustainability benefits.

Technical specifications

Key features:

• Electrospraying uses high voltage to produce particles in the sub-micron scale without thermal processing
• Encapsulation efficiencies of up to 90% have been demonstrated for bioactives including catechin, fish oil, and vitamins
• Particles protect encapsulated materials from moisture, heating, and dissolution conditions, including low pH environments
• Encapsulants remain stable after heating up to 70°C for 5 minutes
• Shelf life extension of up to 6 months has been validated for encapsulated ingredients
• Carrier materials such as proteins and polysaccharides can be tailored to optimise performance for both lipophilic and hydrophilic encapsulants
• Evaluation methods include optical, electron, and x-ray microscopy, calorimetry, and UV analysis under varied storage conditions

Technology readiness level

The technology has been experimentally validated, with demonstrated encapsulation efficiencies of up to 90% and confirmed stability of encapsulants under various pH, temperature, and humidity conditions. Ongoing and future work aims to extend shelf life to up to 1 year by tailoring carrier materials, and to validate performance when particles are incorporated into beverages. Further validation will assess thermal degradation and encapsulation efficiency across diverse storage conditions, advancing the technology toward broader commercial application.