High vitamin E-loaded nanocapsules to fortify a fruit-based product

Fortified foods (FFs) with enhanced health benefits are gaining great interest worldwide. FFs contain bioactive compounds that may promote optimal health and prevent or reduce the risk of disease. In this work, we prepared an FF enriched with nanoencapsulated α-tocopherol (Toc), important form of vitamin E and constituent of various foods and oils. We describe the synthesis of two polycaprolactone-based nanocapsules containing moderate (1 mg/mL, 1Toc-NCs) and high quantity of Toc (25 mg/mL, 25Toc-NCs). Both aqueous nanosuspensions (1Toc-NCs and 25Toc-NCs) exhibited monomodal size distributions with nanometric diameters and excellent encapsulation efficiencies (100 %), and stability over time. The 25Toc-NC nanosuspension, where Toc was both bioactive ingredient and main component of the nanocapsule core, exhibited high Toc loading capacity percentage (53 %). The potential of this nanoformulation in the preparation of fortified/functional foods (FP) was successful proved on a commercial fruit-based ice pop. The nanoencapsulation preserved Toc from degradation after ice pop preparation process and storage at different conditions. The content of Toc was much higher in FP added with 25Toc-NCs than FP with pure Toc. This study advanced the knowledge of the production of FPs of interest for academic and industrial research.