An Attempt to Control Food Functionality by Using Freezing Process

Bioencapsulation of food additives or functional ingredients aims to protect sensitive core materials during storage and consumption, transport them to designated positions in the gastrointestinal tract, and release them at appropriate rates to maximize bioavailability. Bioencapsulation systems need to be designed with GRAS (generally recognized as safe) materials, and the physicochemical processes involved in matrix formation are crucial for realizing expected functionality. From an engineering perspective, it is important to develop a processing method for obtaining products with desirable features. The author has previously reported that a freezing step represents an interesting processing tool for controlling the properties of an encapsulation system. During freezing, the growth of ice crystals in an aqueous solution results in a cryoconcentrated (freeze-concentrated) phase that is controlled by phase equilibrium. The author's idea is to control matrix formation in the cryoconcentrated phase for optimizing encapsulation systems. This review summarizes this concept and future scope.