Surface free energy is an essential physicochemical property of a solid and it greatly influences the interactions between vegetable epicarps and coating suspensions. Wettability is the property of a solid surface to reduce the surface tension of a liquid in contact with it such that it spreads over the surface and wets it, resulting from intermolecular interactions when the two are brought together. The degree of wetting (wettability) is determined by an energy balance between adhesive and cohesive work. The spreading coefficient (S_cf/food) is the difference between the work of adhesion and the work of cohesion. Surface wettability is measured by the contact angle, which is formed when a droplet of a liquid is placed on a surface. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), κ-carrageenan, glycerol, and cellulose nanofiber (CNF) concentrations on the wettability of edible coatings on banana and eggplant epicarps. Coating suspension wettability on both epicarps were evaluated by contact angle measurements. For the (S_cf/food) values obtained, it can be concluded that the surfaces were partially wet by the suspensions. S_cf/food on banana surface was influenced mainly by κ-carrageenan concentration, HPMC-glycerol, κ-carrageenan-CNF, and glycerol-CNF interactions. Thus, increasing κ-carrageenan concentrations within the working range led to a 17.7% decrease in S_cf/banana values. Furthermore, a HPMC concentration of 3 g/100 g produced a 10.4% increase of the S_cf/banana values. Finally, S_cf/fruit values for banana epicarps were higher (~10%) than those obtained for eggplant epicarp, indicating that suspensions wetted more the banana than the eggplant surface.

Condensed tannins from grape seed residues show high antioxidant activity but low oral bioavailability because of their high degree of polymerization and covalent interactions with proteins. This study aimed to improve their bioaccessibility through depolymerization and encapsulation. Depolymerization was carried out using microwave-assisted SN1 reactions with gallic acid as a nucleophile under food-grade conditions, mainly producing epicatechin monomers with 99.8% polymer degradation efficiency. Importantly, the inhibition of ABTS●+ and DPPH● radicals remained unaffected (p > 0.05), indicating that depolymerization preserved the antioxidants’ redox function, maintaining about 90% of their inhibition activity. The products were encapsulated in phosphatidylcholine liposomes, which had nanometric sizes and high encapsulation efficiency (83.11%), and remained stable for up to 60 days. In vitro release of nanoliposomal epicatechin in a D1 simulant was less than 10% after 48 h, fitting a Weibull model (β = 0.07), suggesting sub-diffusive transport and demonstrating high bioactive retention capacity in aqueous systems. During in vitro digestion, bioaccessibility of gallic acid and epicatechin reached 95.61 ± 0.58% and 98.56 ± 0.81%, respectively, with a 2333% increase in the bioaccessible mass of flavan-3-ols in native liposomal condensed tannins, which otherwise showed no detectable bioaccessibility. These findings highlight the potential of polyphenols from agro-industrial waste with enhanced bioaccessibility for applications in nutraceuticals and functional foods.

Per capita meat consumption in Chile is 89.1 kg per year in 2014, of which approximately 25 kg are beef. Some 50% of the beef consumed is imported as vacuum packaged meat from two species, Bos taurus, produced mainly in Chile, Argentina and Paraguay, and Bos indicus, which comes mainly from Brazil and Paraguay. The latter two countries account for the highest levels of beef imports in Chile. The objective of this investigation was to study and compare the fatty acid profiles of beef from Bos Taurus from Chile and Bos indicus from Paraguay and Brazil. Samples of vacuum packaged Longissimus dorsi muscle tissue were collected from private companies, two Chilean, three Paraguayan and two Brazilian. The fatty acid profiles were determined by GLC according to standardized regulations. There were differences in the fat profiles of the analyzed meats, mainly in the content of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Brazilian and Paraguayan beef had similar fat compositions, with higher saturated fat content and lower monounsaturated fat content than the Chilean beef. The saturated and monounsaturated fat contents in the Chilean beef were similar. All the analyzed beef samples had a low content of trans and polyunsaturated fats.