Starch-based materials for encapsulating food ingredients
What it found
Starch can be made into tiny carriers that protect unstable food ingredients during processing, storage and digestion, and release them where needed.
The work comes from lab studies on how these carriers are made and what they can hold.
What they found
Animal and lab studies
Protecting oils
In lab tests, encapsulating olive oil in porous starch microspheres improved its resistance to oxidation compared with free olive oil. Algal oil carried in particles made from modified starch, chitosan and inulin lasted about three times longer before oxidizing than free algal oil.
Carrying probiotics
In lab tests, Lactobacillus plantarum encapsulated in starch and pectin hydrogel particles survived simulated stomach and intestinal fluids better than free cells. Encapsulation efficiency rose from 72.2 to 94.8 as starch content increased.
Delivering ingredients
A double emulsion stabilized by modified quinoa starch released less than 15% of its anthocyanin under simulated stomach conditions and released it in a controlled way in simulated intestinal fluid. This points to possible targeted delivery, though the work was done in lab tests.
Other findings
Why starch works
Starch is widely available, cheap, biodegradable, edible and easy to modify, which makes it well suited for making carriers. It can also form complexes with small molecules and resist digestion in the stomach and small intestine.
Forms of carriers
Starch carriers come as porous starch, microgels, molecular aggregates, starch granule aggregates and other particles. Porous starch has tiny pores that give it a large surface area and good absorption.
How they are made
Methods include enzyme treatment, aggregation, emulsification, supercritical fluid processing, extrusion, fluidized bed coating, electrospraying and drying steps like freeze-drying and spray-drying. Each method suits different ingredients and product needs.
What the authors conclude
“Such starch-based systems can load, protect, and deliver various food ingredients (e.g. fatty acids, phenolic compounds, carotenoids, flavors, essential oils, irons, vitamins, probiotics, bacteriocins, co-enzymes, and caffeine), exhibiting great potentials in developing foods with tailored flavor, nutrition, sensory properties, and shelf-life.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say starch-based systems can load, protect and deliver many food ingredients and show great potential for foods with tailored flavor, nutrition, sensory properties and shelf-life.
- They note that some methods, such as coacervation, are complex and time-consuming and need further work.
- They suggest that combining two or more fabrication methods can give particles with better characteristics.
How it was done
Many helpful food ingredients break down when exposed to oxygen, light, heat or the harsh conditions of the upper gut. The authors wanted to see how starch, which is cheap, edible and easy to modify, can be turned into carriers that protect and deliver these ingredients.
The authors gathered recent studies, mostly from the past ten years, on starch-based carriers. They looked at the forms these carriers take, how they are made, and which food ingredients they have been used to carry.
What it can’t tell you
- Most of the results come from lab tests, not from people eating these foods.
- The review describes how carriers are made and what they can hold, but it does not test health effects in people.
- It cannot say whether eating foods made with these carriers changes health outcomes.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Huazhong Agricultural University, China; Hubei University of Technology, China; University of Warwick, United Kingdom
The paper
- Title
- Starch-based materials encapsulating food ingredients: Recent advances in fabrication methods and applications
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Animals and lab studies
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Guo Y, Qiao D, Zhao S, Zhang B, Xie F (2021). Starch-based materials encapsulating food ingredients: Recent advances in fabrication methods and applications. Carbohydrate polymers. doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118358Free full textPubMed 34364603DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error