Recent advances in the large-scale production of lipid vesicles for use in food products: microfluidization.

The development of a method for the continuous mass production of liposomes is vital for the industrial use of liposomes in food products. The method should be mild enough to prevent denaturation of the encapsulated material, and the materials used for the preparation of the liposomes should be safe and edible. Among the methods available, microfluidization seems to be the most promising. Microfluidization consists of processing emulsions under high pressure through an apparatus called a Microfluidizer. This apparatus also allows the production of another type of lipid vesicle: milkfat-coated microcapsules composed of milkfat and emulsifiers. The main advantages of microfluidization include the continuous production of large quantities of lipid vesicles without dissolving the phospholipids in organic solvents. These vesicles could be used in various food products for a variety of objectives. The addition of encapsulated material in liposomes or in milkfat-coated microcapsules to cheese milk resulted in a retention of 80-90% of the vesicles in the cheese, compared to only 2-4% if the material was added directly to the milk in the unencapsulated form. Liposomes and milkfat-coated microcapsules could be used as enzyme carriers to accelerate cheese ripening, or as carriers for flavouring systems to improve the organoleptic properties of low-fat cheeses or to impart distinctive flavours to new speciality cheeses. These microcapsules could also be used in food products to avoid undesirable side-reactions during food processing, or to supplement food products with nutritious additives.