Novel starch based nanocarrier for vitamin D fortification of milk: Production and characterization

Abstract Novel starch based nanoparticles were developed for entrapment of Vitamin D 3 . High amylose starch nanocarriers had granular shape with particle size ranging from 14.2 to 31.8 nm with negative surface charge and narrow size distribution. VD 3 loaded nanocarriers had the encapsulation efficiency ranging from 37.06 to 78.11%. The physicochemical properties of nanocarriers were characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry and indicated well entrapment of encapsulant. Release behavior of vitamin D 3 was studied in gastro-intestinal media and Rigter–Peppas and wibull models were the most suitable for describing the entire release behavior. Release phenomenon is mostly governed by of Fickian mechanism. The potential ability of nanocarriers for food fortification was studied using milk as a calcium reach model food. Sensory analysis performed for fortified milk and results implicated that the developed nanocarriers did not show any significant difference with blank milk sample and could well mask the after taste and eliminate poor solubility of vitamin D 3 . The results illustrated that nanoparticles can be used for the fortification of food to improve bioavailability of vitamin D 3 or other hydrophobic compounds.