Process Engineering in the Obtention and Preservation of Food Bioactive Ingredients

Worldwide there has been a growing interest in the consumption of functional foods. Functional foods are defined as a foodstuff that provides a health benefit beyond basic nutrition, demonstrating specific health or medical benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease. Some of these foods are composed of bioactive compounds that are considered as bioactive ingredients. Bioactive ingredients can be included in foods such as fruits and vegetables or incorporated into foods prior to its obtainment from different sources. The extracted and isolated bioactive ingredients are a very labile material. Hence, the preservation of the bioactive ingredients is a sound topic. Different procedures are developed for preserving the functionality of bioactive ingredients. It includes cold and heat technologies, encapsulation at micro and nano levels, among others. These strategies are generally focused on the application of bioactive ingredients in foods or supplements. Nevertheless, novel applications are developed as a part of research and development programs from the food industry or laboratories. This book addresses the collection of novel information related to the processes for the obtainment and preservation of food bioactive ingredients. The diverse topics in the volume includes the trends in the obtention and isolation of bioactive ingredients, the sources of bioactive ingredients including microbes, the procedures for the preservation of the bioactive compounds and the novel applications in the food industry.