@article {Chen2017Dec, title = {Dispersing hydrophobic natural colourant β-carotene in shellac particles for enhanced stability and tunable colour}, journal = {R. Soc. Open Sci.}, volume = {4}, number = {12}, year = {2017}, month = {Dec}, pages = {170919}, publisher = {The Royal Society}, abstract = {Colour is one of the most important visual attributes of food and is directly related to the perception of food quality. The interest in natural colourants, especially β-carotene that not only imparts colour but also has well-documented health benefits, has triggered the research and development of different protocols designed to entrap these hydrophobic natural molecules to improve their stability against oxidation. Here, we report a versatile microfluidic approach that uses single emulsion droplets as templates to prepare microparticles loaded with natural colourants. The solution of β-carotene and shellac in the solvent is emulsified by microfluidics into droplets. Upon solvent diffusion, β-carotene and shellac co-precipitates, forming solid microparticles of β-carotene dispersed in the shellac polymer matrix. We substantially improve the stability of β-carotene that is protected from oxidation by the polymer matrix and achieve different colour appearances by loading particles with different β-carotene concentrations. These particles demonstrate great promise for practical use in natural food colouring.}, issn = {2054-5703}, doi = {10.1098/rsos.170919}, url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5750000/}, author = {Chen, Dong and Zhao, Chun-Xia and Lagoin, Camille and Hai, Mingtan and Arriaga, Laura R. and Koehler, Stephan and Abbaspourrad, Alireza and Weitz, DavidA.} }