Active films were developed for food coating applications. Entrapped phenol susceptibility to digestion was studied. Sodium caseinate (Na-CN) coatings were formulated with 0, 10, 20% Casein (CN) incorporating selected phenols as model antioxidants. This study investigated phenol/CN/Na-CN interactions, in vitro bioaccessibility of phenols and CN role in phenols retention during in vitro gastric and pancreatic digestion. The antioxidant activity of catechin (CAT), rutin (RUT), chlorogenic acid (CHL), gallic acid (GAL), and tannic acid (TA) in coatings varied with the phenolic compound type and CN concentration and was related to phenol hydrophobic binding to CN. ABTS method gave activities ranged from 412 down to 213, and DPPH method gave values from 291·7 to 190·9. An inverse relationship was found with CN content due to CN/phenol interaction. During digestion, a part of phenols was degraded by alkaline pH of pancreatic fluid. Simultaneously, CN proteolysis led to release of phenols and the bioaccessibility index remained above 80% for all phenols. The results suggested the possibility of protecting phenols against oxidation and digestive alteration by entrapment in CN and Na-CN coating films. These positive results showed the ability to produce antioxidant-enriched edible coatings to increase food protection and phenol nutritional intake.
Keywords: Edible coating; antioxidant activity; bioaccessibility index; fluorescence spectroscopy; in vitro digestion; phenols.