Nanofibre encapsulation of active ingredients and their controlled release

Due to beneficiary effects of bioactive ingredients, there is a huge increase in the number of food products containing them. Anti-oxidants and antimicrobials are also used to preserve the quality of foods during their shelf life. These ingredients are very sensitive to oxygen, light, heat, pH and temperature fluctuations, and degrade rapidly under conditions of food processing, shelf life and human digestion system. Encapsulation techniques can decrease the degradation and regulate their release as needed. In addition, unfavourable flavour and aroma compounds in foods can be masked by encapsulation. Electrospinning is simple, versatile and a promising technique to produce nanofibres from a large number of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers. Uniaxial and co-axial electrospinning have been reported to encapsulate active drug ingredients, whereas tri-axial electrospinning has recently emerged for application in the pharmaceutical industry. Co-axial electrospinning offers many alternatives for controlled release of encapsulated ingredients. This chapter discusses the potential of the electrospinning technique to encapsulate food bioactive components and their controlled release in foods and in the body.