High-shear wet agglomeration process for enriching cornstarch with curcumin and vitamin D3 co-loaded lyophilized liposomes

[Display omitted] •First publication regarding cornstarch enrichment with curcumin and vitamin D3.•High bioactive retentions in both lyophilized liposomes and enriched cornstarch.•Unsaturated phospholipids played a major role in bioactive retention.•Increased content of dried liposomes promoted increased cornstarch flowability.•Agglomeration with saturated phospholipids promoted lower cornstarch retrogradation. Curcumin and vitamin D3 are bioactive molecules of great importance for the food industry. However, their low stability in several processing conditions hampers their proper incorporation into powdered food formulations. This study proposes the enrichment of a common raw material (cornstarch) with curcumin and vitamin D3 by using high-shear wet agglomeration. The bioactives were initially encapsulated into liposome dispersions and then subjected to lyophilization. The resulting dried vesicles were later incorporated into cornstarch by wet agglomeration using maltodextrin as the binder solution. The phospholipid content and the amount of added liposomes were evaluated to characterize the enriched cornstarch samples. The lyophilized vesicles showed a high retention rate of 99 % for curcumin and vitamin D3, while the enriched cornstarch samples retained above 96 % (curcumin) and 98 % (vitamin D3) after 30 days of controlled storage. All in all, the presence of dried liposomes improved the flowability and delayed retrogradation phenomenon in agglomerated cornstarch. Therefore, this study introduced a novel and reliable method of incorporating hydrophobic and thermosensitive molecules into powdered food formulations by using readily available materials and a straightforward high-shear wet agglomeration process.