Data from: Dispersing hydrophobic natural colorant β-carotene in shellac particles for enhanced stability and tunable color

Color is one of the most important visual attributes of food and is directly related to the perception of food quality. The interest in natural colorants, especially β-carotene that not only imparts color but also has well-documented health benefits, has triggered the research and development of different protocols designed to entrap these hydrophobic natural molecules to improve their stability against oxidation. Here, we report a versatile microfluidic approach that utilizes single emulsion droplets as templates to prepare microparticles loaded with natual colorants. The solution of β-carotene and shellac in the solvent is emulsified by microfluidics into droplets. Upon solvent diffusion, β-carotene and shellac co-precipitates, forming solid microparticles of β-carotene dispersed in the shellac polymer matrix. We substantially improve the stability of β-carotene that is protected from oxidation by the polymer matrix and achieve different color appearances by loading particles with different β-carotene concentrations. These particles demonstrate great promise for practical use in natural food coloring.

色泽是食品最为重要的视觉属性之一，且与食品品质的感官评定直接相关。当下学界对天然着色剂的关注度与日俱增，尤其是β-胡萝卜素（β-carotene）——其不仅可赋予食品色泽，还具备经大量文献证实的健康益处——这推动了各类包埋这类疏水天然分子的方法的研发，以提升其抗氧化稳定性。本研究报道了一种通用的微流控制备方法：以单乳液液滴为模板，制备负载天然着色剂的微粒。将β-胡萝卜素与虫胶（shellac）溶于溶剂后，通过微流控技术乳化形成液滴。随着溶剂扩散，β-胡萝卜素与虫胶共同析出，形成以虫胶聚合物为基质、分散有β-胡萝卜素的固态微粒。本方法通过聚合物基质的保护，大幅提升了β-胡萝卜素的抗氧化稳定性；同时通过调节微粒负载的β-胡萝卜素浓度，可获得多种不同的色泽表现。这类微粒在天然食品着色领域展现出良好的实际应用前景。