Fortifying jelly foods with microencapsulated anti-anaemic compounds, ferrous gluconate, ascorbic acid and folic acid

Abstract

Low ferrous iron bioavailability presents a challenge for food fortification programmes. In this study, jelly foods were fortified with spray-dried chitosan microparticles that had been loaded with ferrous gluconate (FeG) and folic acid (FA) to alleviate iron deficiency anaemia and FA deficiency anaemia, respectively. The presence of FA and ascorbic acid (AA) increased the in vitro iron bioavailability of the FeG-AA-FA microparticles up to sixfold. Furthermore, the iron bioavailability of the fortified jelly foods increased more than 5 folds compared to that of the FeG-AA-FA microparticles. The use of lower temperature during the preparation of fortified jelly foods is recommended to avoid the microparticles' decomposition and a Maillard browning reaction. These findings can help food technologists and product developers select formulations with higher ferrous bioavailability to reduce the prevalence of anaemia.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-022-05599-7.

Keywords: Ascorbic acid; Ferrous gluconate; Folic acid; Fortification; Microencapsulation.

Fig. 1

Characteristics of FeG–AA–FA microparticles prepared by a spray dryer, as A yield–water content and B EE–iron loading. The values are means ± standard deviation of three replicates. ^a−e Samples represented with different letters are significantly different (P < 0.05)

Fig. 2

SEM micrograph of chitosan–TPP microparticles in varying mass ratios of Fe:AA:FA A 1:0:0, B 0:1:0, C 0:0:1, D 1:0.5:0, E 1:1:0, F 1:0.5:0.25, G 1:0.5:1, H 1:2:0.5, I 1:2:1, and TEM micrograph of chitosan–TPP microparticles of varying mass ratios of Fe:AA:FA J 1:0:0, K 1:0.5:0 and L 1:0.5:1

Fig. 3

A FTIR spectra of AA and chitosan–TPP microparticle loaded with FeG–AA and B the possible mechanism of Maillard reaction in chitosan—TPP microparticles double loaded with FeG and AA

Fig. 4

A1-A3 Fe total cumulative release (%), B1-B3 Fe total actual release (mg), A4 Ferrous bioavailability (%) and B4 Ferrous bioavailability (mg) of chitosan–TPP microparticles in varying ratios of Fe:AA:FA. The values of ferrous bioavailability are means ± standard deviation of three replicates and.^a−d samples represented with different letters are significantly different (P < 0.05)

Fig. 5

The appearance and SEM of unfortified jelly foods (G) and fortified jelly foods (GM) in varying concentrations of gelatine

Fig. 6

A The Fe total cumulative release and B ferrous bioavailability of FeG–AA–FA microparticles (M) and fortified jelly foods (GM) in varying concentrations of gelatine. The values of ferrous bioavailability are means ± standard deviation of three replicates and.^a−b samples represented with different letters are significantly different (P < 0.05)