Preparation of Chitosan‐Coated Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (CH‐NLCs) to Control Iron Delivery and Their Potential Application to Food Beverage System

Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) and chitosan‐coated NLCs (CH‐NLCs) were prepared by a combined double emulsion and melt dispersion method. The physicochemical properties of them were investigated to determine the optimum conditions. At 3% emulsifier concentration, the NLCs showed about 191.0 ± 4.1 nm mean particle size and low polydispersity index value compared to those observed under other conditions. The encapsulation efficiency of CH‐NLCs was 83.9% which was about 10% higher than that of NLCs. In vitro release test showed that low release amount of iron from the NLCs (11%) and CH‐NLCs (5%) in simulated gastric condition within 3 h, whereas the iron release amounts of the NLCs and CH‐NLCs were high (over 77%) in simulated intestinal condition because both NLCs and CH‐NLCs were totally destructed in the intestinal condition after 3 h. In the thiobarbituric acid test, the absorbance of milk‐fortified NLC and CH‐NLCs was lower than that of original milk. Based on these results, CH‐NLCs showed great potential for iron fortification in milk. Practical Application Chitosan coating on iron‐loaded nanostructure lipid carriers (NLCs) increased stability of the compound. The application of CH‐NLCs can be extended to food beverage system in order to improve stability and oral bioavailability of iron.