Food for health using nanoliposomal encapsulation technology: A study on green tea catechins in full-fat cheese

Due to the potential antioxidant activities and the associated health benefits, including anticarcinogenic and anti-cardiovascular activities, green tea catechins have received growingattention including their incorporation into food. Nonetheless, owing to some significant technical impediments (e.g. the interactions between green tea catechins and milk componentsbesides potential instability of the catechins), such application is challenging. The aim of thisinvestigation was to examine the feasibility of nanoliposomal encapsulation technology for incorporating green tea catechins (250-1000 ppm) into a full-fat hard cheese (ripened for 90days) and studying the microstructure of the cheese using transmission electron microscopy(TEM). The TEM micrographs showed a homogeneous pattern of milk fat globules with regular spacing (entrapped in a consistent structure of caseins) in the ripened control cheese.Nevertheless, both catechin and GTE (unencapsulated) disrupted the homogenous structure ofthe control cheese and resulted in a heterogeneous and destabilised structure confirming the association between green tea catechins and cheese components, especially cheese fat, duringthe ripening period. However, when nanoliposomal encapsulated green tea catechins wereincorporated into the same cheese and at the same concentrations, the homogenous structure of the cheese did not change and its microstructure remained intact. The size and location of the nanocapsules in the cheese structure were also visualized by TEM. In brief, the findings demonstrate that green tea catechins can be efficiently encapsulated inside of nanoliposomes and subsequently incorporated into cheese as a suitable delivery food product

Keywords:

Nanoliposomal encapsulation , Green tea catechins , Full-fat cheese , Transmission electron microscopy , Cheese microstructure