Perspectives on the use of supercritical particle formation technologies for food ingredients

Numerous techniques have been developed for particle formation, encapsulation, impregnation and drying using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2), demonstrating the flexibility in such technologies while offering advantages in terms of the control of particle size, size distribution and morphology that cannot be matched by conventional technologies. A variety of food ingredients based on proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and minor components have been processed using SC-CO2 technologies and characterized in terms of their properties and functionality. Delivery of health benefiting food bioactives and their controlled release have been a major focus. It is important to better understand the relationships between product functionality and processing parameters so that optimal processes can be designed to produce ingredients with maximum functionality and bioavailability. Considering the growing demand for functional food ingredients, ingredients produced using SC-CO2 particle formation technologies show great potential for further development, targeting food and natural health product applications.