Towards the understanding of the behavior of bio-based nanostructures during in vitro digestion

Abstract

The encapsulation of bioactive compounds in bio-based nanostructures is considered a hot topic in food technology, due to their huge potential in protecting the valuable bioactive compounds and providing new functionalities (e.g. increase of bioavailability). However, there are still some challenges that must be overcome before this technology can be entirely embraced by food industry, including the optimisation of nanostructures formulations to increase stability and bioactive compounds bioavailability and the risk assessment of their use in food. Therefore, in recent years, efforts are being directed to the evaluation of the in vitro behaviour of nanostructures during digestion/absorption. This evaluation can be challenging, however, there are opportunities to take advantage from the lessons learned from pharmaceutical industry and of the considerable progress in the development of more realistic in vitro models and in situ analysis techniques to more accurately predict the behaviour of bio-based nanostructures once ingested.