Encapsulation of phenolic acids within food-grade carriers systems: a systematic review

Abstract

Phenolic acids are natural compounds with potential therapeutic effects against various diseases. However, their incorporation into food and pharmaceutical products is limited by challenges such as instability, low solubility, and reduced bioavailability. This systematic review summarizes recent advances in phenolic acid encapsulation using food-grade carrier systems, focusing on proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides. Encapsulation efficiency, release behavior, and bioavailability are examined, as well as the potential health benefits of encapsulated phenolic acids in food products. Strategies to address limitations of current encapsulation systems are also proposed. Encapsulation has emerged as a promising method to enhance the stability and bioavailability of phenolic acids in food products, and various encapsulation technologies have been developed for this purpose. The use of proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates as carriers in food-grade encapsulation systems remains a common approach, but it is associated with certain limitations. Future research on phenolic acid encapsulation should focus on developing environmentally friendly, organic solvent-free, low-energy, scalable, and stable encapsulation systems, as well as co-encapsulation methods that combine multiple phenolic acids or phenolic acids with other bioactive substances to produce synergistic effects.

Keywords:

• Phenolic acids
• stability
• bioavailability
• encapsulation
• food-grade carriers

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32202047, U23A20256), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20210750), Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (2023ZB497), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M741611), Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of CPSF (GZC20231089), the Modern Agricultural Industrial Technology System Construction Project of Jiangsu Province of China (JATS[2023]477), a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), and the Agricultural Independent Innovation Project of Jiangsu Province (CX(23)1017).