The application of starch-based ingredients in flavor encapsulation

Flavors are of great importance in consumer satisfaction and affect further consumptions of food products. The preservation of aromatic additives is often a top concern of food manufacturers because aromatics are usually expensive, volatile, delicate and hard to handle. Encapsulation provides an effective approach to protect flavors against evaporation and undesirable reactions during storage by coating them with protective carrier materials. Starch has been considered as an excellent wall material for flavor encapsulation over the years. There has been an increasing demand for starches in flavor encapsulation attributed to their significant benefits, as they are fully biodegradable, widely available, inexpensive, and can be easily modified into derivatives with various properties. This paper intends to give a clear overview of the application of four commonly used starch-based ingredients, i.e., cyclodextrins, hydrolyzed starches, octenyl succinic anhydride starches and porous starches in flavor encapsulation. This review allows a better understanding of the properties of these starch derivatives, as well as their functions and problems in application of food flavor encapsulation. Future perspectives of starch application in flavor encapsulation are suggested.