Microencapsulation technology: A review

The development of new functional foods requires technologies for incorporating health promoting ingredients into food without reducing their bioavailability or functionality. In many cases, microencapsulation can provide the necessary protection for these compounds. Microcapsules offer food processors a means to protect sensitive food components, ensure protection against nutritional loss, utilize sensitive ingredients, incorporate unusual or time-release mechanisms into the formulation, mask or preserve flavors/aromas and transform liquids into easy to handle solid ingredients. Various techniques cab be employed to form microcapsules, including spray drying, spray chilling or spray cooling, extrusion coating, fluidized-bed coating, liposomal entrapment, lyophilization, coacervation, centrifugal suspension separation, cocrystallization and inclusion complexation. This article describes the recent and advanced techniques of microencapsulation. Controlled release of food ingredients at the right place and the right time is a key functionality that can be provided by microencapsulation. Timely and targeted release improves the effectiveness of food additives, broadens the application range of food ingredients, and ensures optimal dosage, thereby improving the cost effectiveness for the food manufacture

Innovative use of Sweet sorghum juice in the beverage industry

Sweet sorghum juice, obtained from low water consuming, drought resistant, short duration and seed-propagated sweet sorghum crop, was explored as a source to obtain syrup which can be used as sugar alternative for meeting certain requirements of the beverage industry. Value addition, through conversion of the juice to syrup and beverages, offers farmers an excellent opportunity to improve farm income and productivity in semi arid regions. In this study a new method to produce clarified sweet sorghum juice is demonstrated. The sweet sorghum juice was clarified using pre heating followed by vacuum filtration using a filter aid. The clarified juice was concentrated to syrup with acceptable sensory qualities. Flavoured beverage formulations were optimised using the clarified juice and syrup. Nutritional and sensory properties of the developed beverages showed that the samples were acceptable to the consumers and rated at par with a commercially available beverage. This work has immense industrial and social significance

Innovative use of Sweet sorghum juice in the beverage industry. Int. Food Res

Abstract Sweet sorghum juice, obtained from low water consuming, drought resistant, short duration and seed-propagated sweet sorghum crop, was explored as a source to obtain syrup which can be used as sugar alternative for meeting certain requirements of the beverage industry. Value addition, through conversion of the juice to syrup and beverages, offers farmers an excellent opportunity to improve farm income and productivity in semi arid regions. In this study a new method to produce clarified sweet sorghum juice is demonstrated. The sweet sorghum juice was clarified using pre heating followed by vacuum filtration using a filter aid. The clarified juice was concentrated to syrup with acceptable sensory qualities. Flavoured beverage formulations were optimised using the clarified juice and syrup. Nutritional and sensory properties of the developed beverages showed that the samples were acceptable to the consumers and rated at par with a commercially available beverage. This work has immense industrial and social significance