Omega-3 nano-microencapsulates produced by electrohydrodynamic processing

Abstract Electrohydrodynamic processes, namely electrospinning and electrospraying, are alternative encapsulation technologies to spray-drying and extrusion, which do not require heat to dry. Therefore, these techniques are of special interest for the encapsulation of sensitive bioactives such as omega-3 oils. This chapter presents the fundamentals of the processes as well as the influence of processing conditions, encapsulating biopolymers and solvents on the physicochemical properties of omega-3 dry encapsulates. First, the chapter focuses on how the biopolymer properties, oil emulsification approach, and addition of antioxidants affect oxidative stability of encapsulates produced by monoaxial processes. In the second part, we review the current knowledge and provide future perspectives on the encapsulation of omega-3 by coaxial electrospraying, which does not necessarily require oil emulsification and allows to obtain nano-microcapsules with core–shell structure and a negligible amount of surface oil.