Improving Bioavailability of Vitamin A in Food by Encapsulation: An Update

Vitamin A is an obligatory micronutrient for healthy human life as it cannot be synthesized de novo and has to be acquired from dietary sources.

The poor water solubility and susceptibility against photochemical degradation make vitamin A relatively unstable during food processing as well as storage. To combat prevailing vitamin A deficiency, various strategies have already been adopted in pharmaceutical industries to develop vitamin A formulation which has the ability to protect and minimize its degradation.

On the one hand, in pharmaceutical formulations, vitamin A may be coupled with sub-toxic effects due to its buildup in the liver and other vital organ, while on the other hand its involvement against various health disorders such as neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer has recently compelled the population to achieve vitamin A via pharmaceutical supplements, functional foods or food supplements. The success of pharmaceutical application encouraged food technologists to develop numerous premixes encapsulating vitamin A appropriately which can be successfully applied for the development of food supplements or vitamin A-rich functional foods.

So this chapter is an update of the principal encapsulation techniques adopted for the development of vitamin A nanomaterials to improve its bioavailability and associated challenges with fabrication method. Continue on bioavailability improvement of Vitamin A