Encapsulation Technologies for Food Industry

Food gels: principles, interaction mechanisms and its microstructure

Food hydrogels are important materials having great scientific interest due to biocompatibility, safety and environment-friendly characteristics. In the food industry, hydrogels are widely used due to their three-dimensional crosslinked networks. Furthermore, they have attracted great attention due to their wide range of applications in the food industry, such as fat replacers, encapsulating agents, target delivery vehicles, and many more. In addition to basic and recent knowledge on food hydrogels, this review exclusively focuses on sensorial perceptions, nutritional significance, body interactions, network structures, mechanical properties, and potential hydrogel applications in food and food-based matrices. Additionally, this review highlights the structural design of hydrogels, which provide the forward-looking idea for future applications of food hydrogels (e.g., 3D or 4D printing).

The Process of Pasting and Gelling Modified Potato Starch with LF-NMR

Currently, society expects convenience food, which is healthy, safe, and easy to prepare and eat in all conditions. On account of the increasing popularity of modified potato starch in food industry and its increasing scope of use, this study focused on improving the physical modification of native starch with temperature changes. As a result, it was found that the suggested method of starch modification with the use of microwave power of 150 W/h had an impact on the change in starch granules. The LF-NMR method determined the whole range of temperatures in which the creation of a starch polymer network occurs. Therefore, the applied LF-NMR technique is a highly promising, noninvasive physical method, which allows obtaining a better-quality structure of potato starch gels.

Fate of Thymol and Its Monoglucosides in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Piglets

The monoterpene thymol has been proposed as a valuable alternative to in-feed antibiotics in animal production. However, the effectiveness of the antimicrobial is comprised by its fast absorption in the upper gastrointestinal tract. In this work, two glucoconjugates, thymol α-d-glucopyranoside (TαG) and thymol β-d-glucopyranoside (TβG), were compared with free thymol for their potential to deliver higher concentrations of the active compound to the distal small intestine of supplemented piglets. Additionally, an analytical method was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of thymol and its glucoconjugates in different matrices. In stomach contents of pigs fed with 3333 μmol kg^-1 thymol, TαG, or TβG, total thymol concentrations amounted to 3048, 2357, and 1820 μmol kg^-1 dry matter, respectively. In glucoconjugate-fed pigs, over 30% of this concentration was present in the unconjugated form, suggesting partial hydrolysis in the stomach. No quantifiable levels of thymol or glucoconjugates were detected in the small intestine or cecum for any treatment, indicating that conjugation with one glucose unit did not sufficiently protect thymol from early absorption.