Fortification by design: A rational approach to designing vitamin D delivery systems for foods and beverages.

Over the past few decades, vitamin D deficiency has been recognized as a serious global public health challenge. The World Health Organization has recommended fortification of foods with vitamin D, but this is often challenging because of its low water solubility, poor chemical stability, and low bioavailability. Studies have shown that these challenges can be overcome by encapsulating vitamin D within well-designed delivery systems containing nanoscale or microscale particles. The characteristics of these particles, such as their composition, size, structure, interfacial properties, and charge, can be controlled to attain desired functionality for specific applications. Recently, there has been great interest in the design, production, and application of vitamin-D loaded delivery systems. Many of the delivery systems reported in the literature are unsuitable for widespread application due to the complexity and high costs of the processing operations required to fabricate them, or because they are incompatible with food matrices. In this article, the concept of "fortification by design" is introduced, which involves a systematic approach to the design, production, and testing of colloidal delivery systems for the encapsulation and fortification of oil-soluble vitamins, using vitamin D as a model. Initially, the challenges associated with the incorporation of vitamin D into foods and beverages are reviewed. The fortification by design concept is then described, which involves several steps: (i) selection of appropriate vitamin D form; (ii) selection of appropriate food matrix; (iii) identification of appropriate delivery system; (iv) identification of appropriate production method; (vii) establishment of appropriate testing procedures; and (viii) system optimization.

Influence of pyrolysis temperature on biochar properties and Cr(VI) adsorption from water with groundnut shell biochars: Mechanistic approach.

This study was envisaged to understand the effect of increasing pyrolysis temperature on the Cr(VI) removal potential of the groundnut shells derived biochars. The biochars were prepared at four different pyrolysis temperatures (350 °C, 450 °C, 550 °C, 650 °C) and were used unmodified to examine the adsorption potential for Cr(VI). Influence of biochar dose (1-10 g/L), pHinitial (2-10), Cr(VI)initial (10-500 mg/L) on Cr(VI) adsorptions; adsorption kinetics and isotherms were investigated. The observations suggested that the pyrolysis temperature is the key player in deciding the physicochemical properties as well the adsorption potential of the biochars. SEM and FTIR analysis suggested significant morphological and functional transformations in biochars with increasing pyrolysis temperature. The pHinitial was found to be the most profound adsorption parameter determining the adsorption potential of the biochars. The Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of the biochars decreased with the increase of the pyrolysis temperature (142.87-31.25 mg/L) as well as the solution pHinitial. All the biochars attained 100% removal efficiency with 50 mg/L of Cr(VI)initial and GNSB/350 achieved it in the minimum time (10 h) among all the biochars. GNSB/350 showed promising Langmuir adsorption capacity of 142.87 mg/L (pH 2, Tadsorption 30 °C, Cr(VI)initial 10-500 mg/L). In addition, the adsorption mechanism was found to be a synergistic action of chemi/physi-sorption with monolayer adsorption. Hence, the pyrolysis temperature significantly altered the physicochemical properties of the biochars, which highly influenced the adsorption performance of biochars.

Vitamin A fortification: Recent advances in encapsulation technologies.

Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient whose deficiency is still a major health concern in many regions of the world. It plays an essential role in human growth and development, immunity, and vision, but may also help prevent several other chronic diseases. The total amount of vitamin A in the human diet often falls below the recommended dietary allowance of approximately 900-1000 µ$ \umu $ g/day for a healthy adult. Moreover, a significant proportion of vitamin A may be degraded during food processing, storage, and distribution, thereby reducing its bioactivity. Finally, the vitamin A in some foods has a relatively low bioavailability, which further reduces its efficacy. The World Health Organization has recommended fortification of foods and beverages as a safe and cost-effective means of addressing vitamin A deficiency. However, there are several factors that must be overcome before effective fortified foods can be developed, including the low solubility, chemical stability, and bioavailability of this oil-soluble vitamin. Consequently, strategies are required to evenly disperse the vitamin throughout food matrices, to inhibit its chemical degradation, to avoid any adverse interactions with any other food components, to ensure the food is palatable, and to increase its bioavailability. In this review article, we discuss the chemical, physical, and nutritional attributes of vitamin A, its main dietary sources, the factors contributing to its current deficiency, and various strategies to address these deficiencies, including diet diversification, biofortification, and food fortification.

Biochar synthesis from sweet lime peel for hexavalent chromium remediation from aqueous solution.

Sweet lime (Citrus limetta) peel biochar was obtained by slow pyrolysis of raw biomass at 450 °C with 5 °C/min heating rate. Proximate and ultimate analysis, physico-chemical characterization of the biochar was done. Batch adsorption experiments for Cr(VI) removal were performed with varying pH, biochar dose, contact time and initial Cr(VI) concentrations. It took 8-24 h to reach the equilibrium at 30 °C for varying Cr(VI) concentrations. The biochar was found to possess higher adsorption capacity (100 mg/g) than the adsorbents reported in several previous studies. Langmuir adsorption isotherm and pseudo second order model best explained the experimental data, suggesting monolayer adsorption as the dominant mechanism. Chemical interaction, ion exchange of solute and sorbate ions and physical adsorption also contributed into Cr(VI) adsorption process. Further, Cr(VI) adsorption was found to be a multistep process. The findings suggested that sweet lime peel biochar can be utilized as a low cost and efficient alternative for Cr(VI) removal, which could be useful for aqueous solutions, as well as to promote overall protection against soil and water degradation and pollution.

Effect of drying methods (microwave vacuum, freeze, hot air and sun drying) on physical, chemical and nutritional attributes of five pepper (Capsicum annuum var. annuum) cultivars.

BACKGROUND: A randomized block design experiment was performed to investigate the influence of drying on the physical, chemical and nutritional quality attributes of five prominent cultivars of India under sun drying (SD) (mean temperature 35.5 °C, average daily radiation 5.26 kW h m-2 and mean relative humidity 73.66% RH), hot air drying (HD) at 65 °C, microwave vacuum drying (MVD) (800 W, 5 kPa) and freeze drying (FD) (-50 °C, 5 kPa). Water activity, pH, total phenolic content (TPC), ascorbic acid (AA), capsaicin, ß-carotene, color and Scoville heat unit were studied. RESULTS: TPC, AA, capsaicin content, ß-carotene, color and water activity were significantly affected by the drying method. FD was observed to be most efficient in minimizing the loss of color, capsaicin and ß-carotene. The hotness of analyzed samples decreased in the order 'Bird's Eye' > 'Sannam S4' > 'CO-4' > 'PLR-1' > 'PKM-1' among the studied cultivars, and FD > MVD > HD > SD among the drying methods. CONCLUSION: The FD method was observed to be the most efficient drying method for retaining capsaicin content over other drying methods (SD, HD, MVD), whereas MVD was found to be most efficient in minimizing the loss to nutritional attributes for all five pepper cultivars. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Vitamin C fortification: need and recent trends in encapsulation technologies.

The multifaceted role of vitamin C in human health intrudes several biochemical functions that are but not limited to antioxidant activity, homoeostasis, amino acid synthesis, collagen synthesis, osteogenesis, neurotransmitter production and several yet to be explored functions. In absence of an innate biosynthetic pathway, humans are obligated to attain vitamin C from dietary sources to maintain its optimal serum level (28 µmol/L). However, a significant amount of naturally occurring vitamin C may deteriorate due to food processing, storage and distribution before reaching to the human gastrointestinal tract, thus limiting or mitigating its disease combating activity. Literature acknowledges the growing prevalence of vitamin C deficiency across the globe irrespective of geographic, economic and population variations. Several tools have been tested to address vitamin C deficiency, which are primarily diet diversification, biofortification, supplementation and food fortification. These strategies inherit their own advantages and limitations. Opportunely, nanotechnology promises an array of delivery systems providing encapsulation, protection and delivery of susceptible compounds against environmental factors. Lack of clear understanding of the suitability of the delivery system for vitamin C encapsulation and fortification; growing prevalence of its deficiency, it is a need of the hour to develop and design vitamin C fortified food ensuring homogeneous distribution, improved stability and enhanced bioavailability. This article is intended to review the importance of vitamin C in human health, its recommended daily allowance, its dietary sources, factors donating to its stability and degradation. The emphasis also given to review the strategies adopted to address vitamin c deficiency, delivery systems adopted for vitamin C encapsulation and fortification.

Fate of ß-Carotene within Loaded Delivery Systems in Food: State of Knowledge.

Nanotechnology has opened new opportunities for delivering bioactive agents. Their physiochemical characteristics, i.e., small size, high surface area, unique composition, biocompatibility and biodegradability, make these nanomaterials an attractive tool for ß-carotene delivery. Delivering ß-carotene through nanoparticles does not only improve its bioavailability/bioaccumulation in target tissues, but also lessens its sensitivity against environmental factors during processing. Regardless of these benefits, nanocarriers have some limitations, such as variations in sensory quality, modification of the food matrix, increasing costs, as well as limited consumer acceptance and regulatory challenges. This research area has rapidly evolved, with a plethora of innovative nanoengineered materials now being in use, including micelles, nano/microemulsions, liposomes, niosomes, solidlipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipids and nanostructured carriers. These nanodelivery systems make conventional delivery systems appear archaic and promise better solubilization, protection during processing, improved shelf-life, higher bioavailability as well as controlled and targeted release. This review provides information on the state of knowledge on ß-carotene nanodelivery systems adopted for developing functional foods, depicting their classifications, compositions, preparation methods, challenges, release and absorption of ß-carotene in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and possible risks and future prospects.