Innovative oleogels: Developing sustainable bioactive delivery systems for healthier foods production

Abstract

Oleogels have emerged as an excellent medium for delivering bioactive compounds. This study highlights and discusses recent advances in developing, producing, characterizing, and applying oleogels for delivering functional and bioactive compounds in food products. The review revealed that oleogels present a promising opportunity to create healthier food products by enhancing their functional and nutritional profiles. Oleogels have become one of the most effective encapsulation and delivery systems for various bioactive molecules, including polyphenols, omega fatty acids, vitamins, essential amino acids, natural essential oils, and proteins. Oleogels showed an efficiency in protecting bioactive compounds from degradation within the digestive tract. They have successfully reformulated foods, such as bakery and meat products, with acceptable or even superior techno-functional and physicochemical properties. However, significant challenges remain in improving the processing, formulation, and oleogelation techniques. Further research is strongly recommended to address the reviewed limitations and expand the industrial applications.

Keywords: Bioaccessibility; Bioavailability; Encapsulation; Fat replacers; Nutritional delivery; Oleogel; Oleogel drug delivery; Oleogelation; Omega fatty acids; Proteins.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Illustration of approaches for oleogels formation.

Fig. 2

The effect of replacing beef tallow with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose oleogels on the sensory properties of meat patties (Oh et al., 2019).

Fig. 3

The application of oleogel in various foods products.

Fig. 4

Schematic representation of the process for forming bioactive-loaded oleogels (Günal-Köroğlu et al., 2024).

Fig. 5

Schematic illustration of the relationship between the structure and functionality of gel-based delivery systems.

Fig. 6

Stability of Pickering emulsion at different protein concentrations. (A) Centrifugal stability. (B) Storage stability. (Sun et al., 2024).

Fig. 7

(A) Release of curcumin from Pickering emulsion gels stabilized with WPI particles prepared at pH 6.0 or 5.0 under simulated gastric or intestinal digestion conditions. (B) Degradation rates of curcumin under light irradiation in Pickering emulsion gels stabilized with WPI particles prepared at pH 6.0 or 5.0, compared to a canola oil solution. C and C₀ represent the curcumin concentration at a specific time and at time zero, respectively (Lv et al., 2020).

Fig. 8

Schematic diagrams illustrating the preparation of curcumin-nanostructured lipid carrier-oleogels (Cur-NLC-OGs) through three steps: (1) primary Cur-NLC (O/W system) formation, (2) Cur-NLC (O/W/O system) formation, and (3) Cur-NLC-OGs formation (Zhang, Chuesiang, et al., 2022).

Fig. 9

Retention rate of lutein (A) after in vitro gastric digestion, lutein release rate (B) during in vitro intestinal digestion, and lutein bioaccessibility (C) of SO and supramolecular oleogels. Free fatty acid composition (mg/100 g) of the micellar fraction (D) in the intestinal-digested SO and oleogels. Different letters indicate significant differences (p < 0.05). Data are presented as the mean ± SD (n = 3). (Zhang et al., 2025).