Current status and future prospects of bioactive molecules delivered through sustainable encapsulation techniques for food fortification

In a world of growing population and climate changing, health and sustainable food production are
nowadays considered the most pressing challenges. Foods enriched with bioactive compounds provide
numerous health benefits to consumers. For instance, essential oils and extracts prepared from several
natural edible resources including herbs, spices, fruits, seeds, flowers and medicinal plants are selected
to obtain bioactive compounds. These ingredients have been selected based on their active components
providing antioxidant activity, antiinflammation activity, aroma, and various other health-promoting
attributes. Although having applications in foods and nutraceuticals, certain bioactive compounds are
found susceptible to oxidative degradation, while some are known to be chemically unstable, which
results in minimizing their health-promoting effects. Similarly, the instability of bioactive compounds
during several stages of food manufacturing and storage, in conjunction with poor bioavailability, fast
release, low solubility, and chemical instability when exposed to different conditions in the
gastrointestinal tract, significantly compromise their anticipated benefits. Therefore, effective vehicles
and sustainable techniques are essential for the delivery of bioactive compounds in foods to retain
requisite benefits. The encapsulation process is one of the most popular techniques applied for the
protection and controlled release of bioactive compounds, as well as for masking undesirable odours
and bitter tastes of certain food ingredients. This review gives insight into studies published on bioactive
preparations and the techniques of encapsulation for their integration to obtain enhanced and
sustainable health-promoting food products. The benefits achieved include the protection of bioactive
compounds against adverse environmental conditions, improvement of their physicochemical
functionalities, stability during processing and storage, and enhanced bioavailability, providing healthpromoting and anti-disease activities to the consumers.