Application of micro/nano-fluidics for encapsulation of food bioactive compounds-principles, applications, and challenges

Background: Microfluidics (MFs) and nanofluidics (NFs) techniques are emerging novel technologies gaining more attention in recent years to encapsulate bioactive compounds (bioactives) in the food, drug, and biomedical industries.Scope and approach: Bioactives, such as fish oil, ascorbic acid, anthocyanins, and essential oils, positively impact human health; they are often poorly absorbed and thermally unstable. In this regard, using MFs/NFs has several benefits for bioactives, e.g. improving the biostability or bioavailability and solubility by the increasing of surface area, uniform size, shape, and controlled release of them, along with their protection against degradation conditions associated with food processing and storage, as well as to ensure safe delivery to the target sites in our body. Additionally, the controlled release approach is an effective tool for delivering bioactives.Key findings and conclusions: Application of MFs/NFs in food processing and encapsulation of bioactives, nutraceuticals, and food additives is limited. More studies are required to establish the potential efficacy of MFs/ NFs in this field. Therefore, the present review highlights various MFs techniques, including modern devices, advantages and disadvantages, the possibility of scaling up the technology, and future indications for encapsulating bioactives.