lycopene, phytoene). Carotenoids are synthesized by all plants Unfortunately, due to their required emulsiﬁcation in form of

Overview

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Key numbers

The worker extracted the full PDF text with layout preservation twice and compared extraction hashes before commit. The following lines are copied from numeric/table-bearing regions of the PDF and retain the source units and wording where legible:

Carotenoids are natural organic pigments comprising eight iso- 2005; Stahl and Sies, 2005). This may be related to the carote-
prene units joined to a skeleton of 40 carbon atoms. Carote- noids’ impact on cellular signaling cascades such as various
and many microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), but not by ani- mixed micelles in the gut prior to their uptake (Bohn, 2008),
responsible for the red, yellow, and orange color of fruit, vege- sources, is low, around 10%–20% for carotenes, and up to 40%
tables, ﬂowers etc. (Britton, 1996). for xanthophylls (Bohn, 2008; Salar-Behzadi et al., 2013).
lipophilic compounds with octanol-water coefﬁcients of ca. 10– ucts, ice cream, beverages, or confectionaries (Britton and
18 (Cooper et al., 1997). They also easily isomerize and are oxi- Khachik, 2009). Moreover, carotenoids are considered as natural
singlet oxygen quenchers or electron donators/acceptors (Krin- spreads etc. (Yanishlieva et al., 2001; Dimakou and Oreopoulou,
of a carotenoid-rich diet has been suggested to confer important through improving matrix release kinetics (Qian et al., 2012c),
health beneﬁts to humans by retaining main bodily functions solubility (Ribeiro et al., 2010), and may reduce their degrada-
and to prevent inﬂammation related disease such as cardiovas- tion during digestion (Wang and Bohn, 2012). Such carriers
CONTACT Dr. Torsten Bohn torsten.bohn@gmx.ch Luxembourg Institute of Health, Rue 1 A-B Thomas Edison, L-1445 Strassen, Luxembourg.
Figure 1. Cause and effect diagram illustrating parameters associated with processing conditions and matrix compositional and structural characteristics inﬂuencing the
availability. On the other hand, abusive processing, including release (Augustin and Sanguansri, 2008; Gonnet et al., 2010; Zui-
prolonged storage time, exposure to oxygen, severe heat treat- dam and Shimoni, 2010). With respect to carotenoids, the design
and light (Wang and Bohn, 2012). Thus, maintaining carotenoid ity, and droplet particle size changes during incorporation in the
advances in carotenoid micro- and nano-encapsulation aiming availability (Ribeiro et al., 2010). For lipophilic compounds, the fol-
conditions (Figure 1) and to ensure maximal bioavailability. (McClements, 2010):
Encapsulation refers to a physicochemical process aiming to entrap droplet size < ca. 250 nm;
Sanguansri, 2008). Furthermore, the carrier material should be transitions (e.g. glassy to rubbery) in biopolymer matrices,
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND NUTRITION 3
inducing their structural collapse, can also adversely impact the and the shorter ﬁlm formation time (Shu et al., 2006; Shen and
stability of the encapsulated material. As a consequence, the Quek, 2014).
reported that carotenoids exert high stability at low (aW:0.11– material. Adverse effects on both encapsulation efﬁciency and
0.3, glassy state) to intermediate water activities (glassy state storage stability were detected when increasing the core:wall
controlled by Williams–Landel–Ferry (WLF) kinetics), but low material ratio from 1:19 to 3:17 for a broad range of wall mate-
stability upon full matrix plasticization (Desobry et al., 1997; rials including gelatin, gum arabic, gellan gum, mesquite gum,
Selim et al., 2000; Sutter et al., 2007). and soluble soybean polysaccharide (Rodrıguez-Huezo et al.,
Selecting the appropriate encapsulation strategy of bioactive 2004; Shu et al., 2006; Hojjati et al., 2011).
size, morphology, structural aspects, solubility), the stability microcapsules (Loksuwan, 2007). The presence of surface active
against ageing (e.g. matrix collapse), and release mechanisms/ functional groups (e.g. 1-octenyl succinate), the amount of free sol-
for efﬁcient encapsulation and increased storage stability at 10 and
General aspects 20 C, compared to its free form (Rocha et al., 2012).
atomized by passing through a nozzle and mixed with a stream carotenoid loaded dried microspheres (Pu et al., 2011; Shen and
of hot air, usually around 140–180 C, in a drying chamber Quek, 2014). The formation of spray dried microcapsules via casein
(Gharsallaoui et al., 2007). Spray drying is a cost-effective and micelle dissociation—re-assembly mechanisms was an efﬁcient
trolled particle size formation, good technological powder char- and a food colorant (Zhang and Zhong, 2013). The microcapsules
acteristics and short residence time in the drying chamber exerted very good dispersibility over a broad pH range (2–10),
(1–30 s) (Gouin, 2004; Gharsallaoui et al., 2007). while their instability close to the casein isoelectric point was mini-
For lipophilic compounds such as for carotenoids, o/w emulsion mized by adding soluble soy polysaccharides (Table 1), adsorbing
2010). Ingredients with good emulsifying and ﬁlm-forming capac- resulting in bixin core/casein shell particles of very small mean size
ity, high solubility and low viscosity are predominantly used (Ghar- (90 nm) and of high stability against thermal/light induced carot-

Methods (brief)

solubility and potential degradation during digestion. In addition, carotenoids in food products are prone functional food; structural
and to prevent inﬂammation related disease such as cardiovas- tion during digestion (Wang and Bohn, 2012). Such carriers
kinetics during gastrointestinal (GI) digestion should be con- uble amylose, and the thickening capacity of starch, are known to
b-cyclodextrin carotenoid Freeze drying ¡18 C lycopene 50% for 1:4 no complex nd nd Irregular structures of varying size nd (Nunes and
Nd: not determined; CD: cyclodextrin, DE: dextrose equivalent, RH: relative humidity.
of the core material. A direct relation between water activity of ous samples (solution, suspension, or o/w emulsion) at very
tion rates of xanthophylls compared to spray-dried samples by reported to improve the encapsulation efﬁcacy and retention of
caseinate and b-cyclodextrins (CDs) have been used for carot- chemical interplay of the present biomolecules (Buera et al.,
lation efﬁciency and release kinetics under simulated digestion Interfacial engineering of o/w emulsions, e.g. tailoring of the
release under GI digestion conditions. Solvent displacement supersaturation, nucleation and b-carotene crystal formation
where FB is the bioaccessibility, FC equals transport (the frac- during digestion; and
across the intestinal epithelium), and FM represents metabolism the lipid phase, modulating digestion (prevention of lipid
dissolution) during digestion, the presence of small lipid drop-
the digestion process (Wang et al., 2012a). However, higher from 34 to 59%. A positive correlation of carotenoid bioaccessi-
doses tend to lower bioavailability, possibly due to saturation bility and the completeness of lipid digestion was also detected.
facilitating their transport to aqueous medium during the droplets during digestion.
during digestion and b-carotene bioaccessibility was observed, facial layer composition (whey protein isolate, decaglycerol
increased from 0 to 50%, whereas a further increase of the LCT affected the stability of lipid particles during in vitro digestion.

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Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.

Commit	Date	Change	Description
3171d06	2026-08-02	major	1 section added
bc84bfc	2026-08-02	major	6 sections added; narrative text revised