Fortification/enrichment of milk and dairy products by encapsulated bioactive ingredients

Abstract

Bioactive compounds (bioactives) derived from plants and animals, are effective in increasing the safety and health of society through the treatment and prevention of diseases such as cancer. Fortifying conventional foods with bioactives is an accepted strategy by scientists, food manufacturers, and consumers. Milk and dairy products are among the most important foods used in our daily diet and can be a suitable option to deliver bioactives to the body, but there are challenges towards using these compounds in their original unprotected/free form. They can be degraded before reaching the target location in the body and interact with milk compounds, resulting in a negative impact on the quality characteristics of the corresponding foods. Thus, a suitable encapsulation technique can help to protect these sensitive compounds from environmental stresses and the process they encounter during the manufacture of food. This also prevents adverse interactions of bioactives with compounds in milk. This article aimed to review the recent literature about the addition of encapsulated bioactives such as vitamins, essential fatty acids, phenolic compounds, minerals, and enzymes into milk and dairy products, with a focus on common applied bioactives, methods of encapsulation, the interaction of bioactives with milk components, and the challenges facing the use of this technology in the dairy industry.

Keywords: Bioactive compounds; Bioavailability; Delivery systems; Functional dairy foods; Milk enrichment.