Novel nanostructured lipid carriers as a promising food grade delivery system for rutin

•Rutin was successfully entrapped into nanostructured lipid carriers (R-NLCs).•R-NLCs were used to fortify various food beverages.•Various food parameters were not affected by R-NLCs and all systems were stable. The aim of the present study was to encapsulate rutin by nanostructured lipid carriers (R-NLCs), as a solution to eliminate the fortification difficulties and provide healthier functional foods. Rutin was loaded into food grade NLCs in different rutin to lipid ratios using high shear rate homogenization method. Colloidal properties of R-NLCs such as particle size, poly dispersity index, encapsulation efficiency, loading capacity, and encapsulation stability were studied. R-NLCs with a rutin to lipid ratio of 10% were selected as an optimum formulation. Morphological studies have shown that R-NLCs are round shaped particles with smooth surfaces. The R-NLC fortified food samples and models were subjected to pH, physical and thermal stability, and turbidity analysis. The results indicated that the developed R-NLCs could provide a method for designing new functional foods based on nanocarriers.