Extending the use for food applications of a functional lipid extract from shrimp through complex coacervation encapsulation

Póster presentado a la 31st EFFoST International Conference titulada: Food Science and Technology Challenges for the 21st Century - Research to Progress Society, celebrada en Sitges (España) del 13 al 16 de noviembre de 2017.Currently, consumers demand food products with a low amount of additives. This is especially true in the case of synthetic additives, so that research on new alternatives from natural origin is of great interest. The lipid extract from shrimp cephalothorax (LES) is a natural food ingredient with potential applications as food coloring and functional ingredient, due to the presence of polyunsaturated fatty acids (including DHA and EPA), tocopherol and astaxanthin. However, the lipid extract is not easily dispersed in aqueous matrices, present an intense shrimp odor and is unstable to oxidation reactions. In the present work, the LES was encapsulated by complex coacervation using a gelatin-gum arabic complex in order solve these problems and expand its use as food ingredient. Microcapsules round in shape measuring 46.9 ± 12.9 µm in which the lipid extract was efficiently encapsulated (93.5 ± 0.01%) were formed. Once stabilized by freeze-drying, the capsules lost their structure; however, it was fully recovered after reconstitution in water. The microcapsules showed low water solubility (9.6 ± 1.5%), indicating a strong interaction between gelatin and gum arabic. The microcapsules were submitted to an accelerated stability study (43 days, 36 °C, 80% RH), using the free oil as control, revealing an improvement in astaxanthin stability as a result of encapsulation, as well as negligible lipid oxidation by TBARS. Two different food matrices were chosen to evaluate the application of encapsulated LES, namely yogurt and gellified fish product, providing them with an attractive orange color. Furthermore, in the case of yogurt, encapsulation efficiently reduced the characteristic shrimp odor imparted by the lipid extract, as determined by a trained sensory panel. From the results, it is concluded that microencapsulation is an effective way of extending the use of LES for food applications.This work has been financed by the Spanish MINECO projects CRUSTAVAL AGL2011-27607 and HALOFISH AGL2014-52825.Peer Reviewe