CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

During the past two decades, people interested in food choice as a source of well-being and to prevent food-related health issues have become more and more numerous. Not only people with high levels of expendable income are interested in functional health-related foods and supplements, but also athletes and young consumers look for specific health benefits. The concern about weight maintenance has also become a main factor in food selection. Actually, people are turning to food options for prevention of health problems as health costs rise, as well as to take control in small ways the quality of their family life. Dairy benefits are understandable to the average consumer and the products available are affordable even with value-added benefits. Innovation has played a large role in the functional foods category; furthermore, most of the functional food market?s innovation occurs in the dairy segment. Dairy is both an important source of beneficial components as well as being a well-accepted vehicle for delivery of those benefits. Dairy product manufacturers are finding more ways to create innovative, nutrient-packed products that give them a competitive advantage (Menrad, 2003; Siró et al., 2008). In today?s competitive market new frontier technology is essential to keep leadership in the food and food-processing industry. The prediction is that nanotechnology will transform the entire food and dairy industry in the near future. There are two principal aspects that need to be considered to define the nanotechnology: scale and uniqueness/novelty. In this sense nanotechnology involves the control of matter at a scale between 1 and 100 nm, where enhanced properties such as increased control of light spectrum, higher strength, lighter weight, and greater chemical reactivity than their larger-scale counterparts, enable novel applications (Yada, 2014). Nanotechnology is entering into food and dairy industries; for example, a few products that include this technology in packaging as nanosensors or nanotracers are now available in some countries. However, other applications are under study due to the huge potential of this technology, which attracts more and more competitors to the field (Qureshi et al., 2012). An increasing growth for the market of food and dairy-related nanoproducts and patent applications was reported by several authors. The growth of this market is attributed in part to the use of food proteins for the encapsulation, protection, and transport of bioactives (Danino et al., 2011; Le Maux et al., 2014; Livney and Dalgleish, 2009; Schmitt and Bovetto, 2007). Nanotechnology can be applied to develop nanoscale materials, controlled delivery systems, to detect contaminants and to create nanodevices for molecular and cellular biology, and will impact the whole chain value, from how food is grown to how it is packaged. In particular, the application of nanotechnology with respect to the food and dairy industry will be aimed at two major heads, food additives and food and dairy packaging. In this chapter, we focus in the theoretical aspects of different technologies applied in delivery systems of bioactive compounds for food applications. Regulatory aspects are discussed. In addition, we review examples of delivery of hydro- and lipo-soluble biocomponents using nanotechnology approaches in dairy foods.