This work was financially supported by Base Funding - UIDB/50020/2020 of the Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM - funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), Base Funding - UIDB/00690/2020 of
CIMO - funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), and
Base Funding - UIDB/04469/2020 of the CEB funded by national funds
through FCT. Andreia Ribeiro acknowledges her PhD fellowship funded
by Project NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000028, supported by N2020, under
PT2020, through ESF, and Raquel F. Gonçalves acknowledges the
Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for their fellowship
(SFRH/BD/140182/2018). Authors thank Fluidinova S.A. for providing
samples of nanoXIM-CarePaste and Instituto de Investigação e Inovação
em Saúde (i3S) for the services provided with CLSM analysis.
Vitamin E is a lipophilic vitamin playing an essential role in human health. Due to oxidative instability, it
presents fast degradation and bioactivity loss. In this study, vitamin E-loaded Pickering emulsions (PEs) stabilized
by nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HAp) were produced using a static mixer (NETmix), a technique enabling
continuous production and droplet size tailoring. Thus, oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions containing vitamin E at a
content of 1 mg/mL were produced with different droplet sizes (7.53, 11.56 and 17.72 μm) using an O/W ratio of
20/80 (v/v). Their stability during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion and vitamin E bioaccessibility were investigated.
It was observed that n-HAp particles disrupt in the stomach and subsequently aggregate as random
calcium phosphates in the small intestine, leading to low vitamin E bioaccessibility due to oil entrapment. The
emulsion showing the highest vitamin E bioaccessibility (3.29 ± 0.57%, sample with the larger average droplet
size) was used to produce fortified gelatine and milk, resulting in an increased bioaccessibility (10.87 ± 1.04%
and 18.07 ± 2.90%, respectively). This fact was associated with the presence of macronutrients and the lower n-
HAp content. Overall, n-HAp PEs offer advantages for vitamin E encapsulation directed to fortified foods
development, a process able to be extended to other lipophilic vitamins.
