Research points to stable encapsulation of fish oil with multiple vitamins and bioactives

16-Apr-2015 - Last updated on 17-Apr-2015 at 13:36 GMT

The team suggest the method could deliver multiple lipophilic bioactives in the same microencapsulation as an omega-3 rich oil.

An encapsulation complex made up of gelatin and sodium hexametaphosphate could enable stable microencapsulation of fish oil with multiple lipophilic bioactive compounds, say researchers.

The findings, published in the Journal of Functional Foods, suggest that manufacturers of functional foods and supplements could use the technology to include multiple vitamins and other lipophilic ingredients such as curcumin and coenzyme Q10 in to omega-3 encapsulates using a complex coacervates of gelatin and sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP).

Led by first author Bo Wang from Deakin University in Australia, the research team noted that a wide range of commercial foods are already fortified with bioactive functional ingredients, but that hydrophobic ingredients such as carotenoids and certain vitamins need to be delivered to food in an oil format to improve their normally low bioavailability.

“These ingredients are often unstable and require stabilization before being incorporated into foods,” noted the team. “Since omega-3 lipids are widely used functional food ingredients and require microencapsulation for stabilization and delivery to many foods, we decided to co-encapsulate other lipophilic ingredients to create combination products containing omega-3 oil, vitamins A, D₃, E and K₂, coenzyme Q₁₀ and curcumin.”

Encapsulation study

Wang and colleague aimed to developing a microencapsulation delivery system, using complex coacervation, to combine multiple functional lipophilic ingredients including tuna oil, vitamin A as retinyl palmitate, vitamin D₃ as cholecalciferol, vitamin E as alpha-tocopherol, vitamin K₂, coenzyme Q₁₀ and curcumin. They used ascorbyl palmitate (AP), a lipid-soluble ester of ascorbic acid, as an antioxidant to improve oxidative stability.

They noted that an emulsion homogenization speed of 15,000 rpm for 15 min resulted in low surface oil content (0.08%), high encapsulation efficacy (99.84%) and encapsulation yield (96.59%), with a significantly enhanced oxidative stability index (6.23 h).

They added that ATR-FTIR analysis indicated that there was no chemical reaction between the oil phase and shell material and no detectable oxidation of the oil phase after microencapsulation.

Source: Journal of Functional Foods
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016/j.jff.2015.03.027
“Microencapsulation of tuna oil fortified with the multiple lipophilic ingredients vitamins A, D3, E, K2, curcumin and coenzyme Q10”
Authors: Bo Wang, et al