Development of Omega 3 Fatty Acid Enriched Stable Functional Foods: Challenges and Options

The consumer interest in health-promoting foods is almost dramatically increasing because of the increased health consciousness of the modern people. Functional foods are fortified, enriched foods that contain specific health improving nutrients and prevent certain nutrition based disorders. Functional components are naturally present in certain foods (e.g. fruits, vegetables etc.,) and enrichment can be done in some cases to make it functional. Polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acid (PUFA), a functional component present in fish such as sardine, salmon etc. and in flaxseed is generally recognized as being beneficial to the health. Omega-3 PUFAs are rich in double bonds and unsaturated in nature, this attribute makes them highly susceptible to lipid oxidation and unfit for incorporation into long shelf life foods. Hence, it is necessary to find out a suitable delivery mechanisms to develop omega 3 rich functional food products. Microencapsulation allows a bioactive compound to be trapped or encapsulated inside a tiny sphere known as microsphere or microcapsule and thus protecting the core compound. The present article paper provides a literature review of different microencapsulation techniques that can be possibly used for the encapsulation of omega 3 fatty acid for developing stable omega 3 rich food products.