Digestion simulation of ionic liquid-based systems for the development of functional food additives

Abstract

In the last decade, the food industry has faced a tremendous revolution driven by the conscious food consumption motivated by the concepts of well-being, naturalness, safety, functionality and sustainability. One of the major challenges that food industry is facing nowadays is providing additives and offering products that fit such concepts. These needs are still evident due to the lack of established alternatives over hazardous agrochemicals, traditional additives with limited use, obtained from non-sustainable sources or without any nutritional value. The use of ionic liquid (IL) technology to design functional additives could be a potential solution to these challenges, since ILs can be obtained from natural bioactive compounds and their physical properties can be finely adjusted for a target application by the right choice of precursors. However, the application of ILs as functional food additives requires more in-depth studies, not only in terms of technical assessment, but also in terms of their digestion behavior and safety for human consumption, providing a complete proof of concept investigation. The present project has two main objectives. The first one is to study the synthesis, characterization, and in vitro digestion of ILs derived from bioactive compounds as functional food additives for the first time. The second one is to study the in vitro behavior of lipidic compounds in IL-based systems and their physicochemical and microstructure characterization, evaluating the influence of ILs as additives on the digestion of lipids of nutritional importance. This study will provide a better understanding of the complex human digestion of bioactive compounds in the IL form as functional food additives and lipidic systems containing such ILs, which will be relevant for new food products and processes' design. (AU)