Background: Nowadays, the functional foods represent one the most promising, interesting and innovative areas in the food industry. Various components are being added to foods in order to render them functional. Methods: One example of these components are plant naturally occurring phenolic compounds, which are associated with a high antioxidant capacity and thus with benefits in relation to human health. Results: However, despite the huge number of scientific studies and patents on this topic and their natural presence in foods, namely in the ones from plant origin, there are still few marketable products enriched with these compounds. The commercialization of this type of functional products needs to go through various regulations, proving that they are safe and present the ascribed health benefits, conquering the target audience. In this review the growing interest of industry and consumers’ appetence for functional foods and nutraceuticals is highlighted, focusing especially on phenolic compounds. Conclusion: Although several published works show the multitude of bioactive properties of these compounds, ensuring their use as bioactive ingredients in food, they present inherent stability issues needing to be solved. However, considerable research is presently ongoing to overcome this problem, making viable the development of new products to be launched in the market.

Replacing synthetic surfactants by natural alternatives when formulating nanoemulsions has gained attention as a sustainable approach. In this context, nanoemulsions based on sweet almond oil and stabilized by saponin from Quillaja bark with glycerol as cosurfactant were prepared by the high-pressure homogenization method. The effects of oil/water (O/W) ratio, total surfactant amount, and saponin/glycerol ratio on their stability were analyzed. The formation and stabilization of the oil-in-water nanoemulsions were analyzed through the evaluation of stability over time, pH, zeta potential, and particle size distribution analysis. Moreover, a design of experiments was performed to assess the most suitable composition based on particle size and stability parameters. The prepared nanoemulsions are, in general, highly stable over time, showing zeta potential values lower than −40 mV, a slight acid behavior due to the character of the components, and particle size (in volume) in the range of 1.1 to 4.3 µm. Response surface methodology revealed that formulations using an O/W ratio of 10/90 and 1.5 wt% surfactant resulted in lower particle sizes and zeta potential, presenting higher stability. The use of glycerol did not positively affect the formulations, which reinforces the suitability of preparing highly stable nanoemulsions based on natural surfactants such as saponins.

The bioactivity of the cottage cheese was better preserved with microencapsulated rosemary extracts.

In this work, hydroalcoholic extracts of two mushrooms species, Suillus luteus (L.: Fries) (Sl) and Coprinopsis atramentaria (Bull.) (Ca), were studied for their synergistic antioxidant effect and their viability as functional food ingredients tested by incorporation into a food matrix (cottage cheese). In a first step, the individual extracts and a combination of both, showing synergistic effects (Sl:Ca, 1:1), were microencapsulated by spray-drying using maltodextrin as the encapsulating material. The incorporation of free extracts resulted in products with a higher initial antioxidant activity (t0) but declining after 7 days (t7), which was associated with their degradation. However, the cottage cheese enriched with the microencapsulated extracts, that have revealed a lower activity at the initial time, showed an increase at t7. This improvement can be explained by an effective protection provided by the microspheres together with a sustained release. Analyses performed on the studied cottage cheese samples showed the maintenance of the nutritional properties and no colour modifications were noticed.

Pickering emulsions (PEs) have attracted attention in different fields, such as food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, mainly due to their good physical stability. PEs are a promising strategy to develop functional products since the particles’ oil and water phases can act as carriers of active compounds, providing multiple combinations potentiating synergistic effects. Moreover, they can answer the sustainable and green chemistry issues arising from using conventional emulsifier-based systems. In this context, this review focuses on the applicability of safe inorganic solid particles as emulsion stabilisers, discussing the main stabilisation mechanisms of oil–water interfaces. In particular, it provides evidence for hydroxyapatite (HAp) particles as Pickering stabilisers, discussing the latest advances. The main technologies used to produce PEs are also presented. From an industrial perspective, an effort was made to list new productive technologies at the laboratory scale and discuss their feasibility for scale-up. Finally, the advantages and potential applications of PEs in the food industry are also described. Overall, this review gathers recent developments in the formulation, production and properties of food-grade PEs based on safe inorganic solid particles.