Last modified on 20 December 2011, at 03:15

Nanoemulsions in foods

Objective

To create a technology landscape report on Nanoemulsions in food

  • Identify market players with prolific IP activity in the technology area
  • Segment the players by the industry they belong to

Note: This report is just a template and gives an indication of what the paid report contains.

Click here for information to purchase the report

Background

With the rapid technological advances, studies in the field of Food processing and packaging have been extended from micro to nano-sized (10 -9 m) particles. Food nanotechnology is rapidly emerging with several innovations in food packaging and nutraceuticals. Nano-emulsions are now being increasingly used for encapsulating bio active compounds and act as transport vehicles in probiotic health foods and other functional foods. Furthermore, the so called “smart foods” containing nanotech sensors in the packages are capable of detecting pathogens, toxins and other chemicals, enabling the consumers to detect food spoilage. Ongoing research areas include “interactive foods” like beverages which change flavors and colors, foods that can adjust for a person’s nutritional needs Nanovip.


Emulsion is a system in which one liquid made of a fine particle is dispersed in another liquid, ex- oil dispersed in water (O/W emulsion). The emulsions are highly unstable and encounter problems like flocculation, creaming and coalescence. Though micro-emulsions have found a vast application in food processing, in recent years nano-emulsions are emerging out with better advantages when compared to micro-emulsions, as described below:

  • Size of the particle – 5 to 100 nm
  • Thermodynamically stable
  • Transparent emulsions- suitable for transparent foodstuffs like beverages
  • Continuous self-assembly with hydrophilic and hydrophobic portions to maintain stable emulsion state
  • Uncharged particles – no surface coalescence
  • Very small size – no sedimentation or creaming
  • Increased stability- increased bio availability Kim et al.(2010)


In general, Nano-encapsulation involves the incorporation, absorption or dispersion of bioactive compounds in small vesicles with nano (or submicron) diameters. The incorporated bioactive compounds may be protected against degradation, have improved stability and solubility (e.g., solubilizing a hydrophilic compound in hydrophobic matrices and vice versa) and therefore might increase bioavailability and delivery to cells and tissues. Reducing the size of encapsulates into the nanoscale offers opportunities related to prolonged gastrointestinal retention time caused by bio-adhesive improvements in the mucus covering the intestinal epithelium Bouwmeester et al. (2009)


Depending upon the nature of bioactive compounds, two types of nano-emulsions can be prepared. For water insoluble hydrophobic compounds like certain vitamins, minerals, aroma volatiles, flavor components, antioxidants, carotenoids and lutein, oil-in-water (o/w) emulsion is suitable. For water soluble bioactive compounds like the water soluble vitamins, w/o/w emulsion is used. The compounds are entrapped in the aqueous core of such emulsions. In a w 1 /o/w 2 emulsion system, upon consumption the external w 2 phase will be perceived but the internal w 1 phase will be shielded from the taste receptors during the time scales of eating. This helps to mask bitter tastes and undesirable flavors of the bioactive compounds Lakkis (2007).


Concept Table

S.No English Keywords French Keywords German Keywords
Food Nano Emulsions Food Nano Emulsions Food Nano Emulsions
1 Food Nano* Emulsion, emulsifier, emulsify,emulsification Alimentaires, aliment, aliments Nano* émulsion, émulsions, émulsifiant, émulsifiants, émulsification, Lebensmittel Nano* Emulsion, Emulsionen, Emulgator, Emulgatoren, Emulgieren, Emulgierung
2 Beverage, Drink Ultrafine Colloid Boissons, breuvage, des boissons ultrafines Colloïde, colloïdes, colloïdale, colloïdalement Getränk, Getränke ultrafeinen Kolloid, Kolloid-, kolloidale, kolloidal
3 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
4 **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****


  • An indicative list of terms to show how a concept table is generated. View paid report for complete list.
  • Concept Table was enriched by searches related to gut biology and probiotics in food from pubmed mesh, relevant patents, scientific articles and various thesauri

Class Codes and Definition

IPC / ECLA Class codes

CLASS CODE DEFINITION
CLASS CODES RELATED TO EMULSIONS
C08J000302 *Making solutions, dispersions, lattices or gels by other methods than by solution, emulsion or suspension polymerization techniques

US Class codes

CLASS CODE DEFINITION
977702 Nanotechnology - Having biological material component

Relevant F- Terms

S.No F-theme F-terms
1 4F070< Processes of treating macromolecular substances
AE15 Protective colloids


  • An indicative list of various class codes used for the IP search. View paid report for complete list.


Search Strategy

Search Strategy with English keywords

Database: Thomson Innovation
Timeline: Query: 01/01/2001 - 27/8/2011

Patent Coverage: US, DWPI, FR, WO, EP, JP,CN, KR, DE, GB

S.No Concept Scope Search string Type of class codes Class codes INPADOC hits
1 (Food+Nano) keywords + Class codes of Emulsions Title, Abstract, Claims food *** AND Nano*** Any IPC or ECLA C08J000302 OR **** ##
2 US class ***
3 1 OR 2 #
4 (Food + emulsion) keywords + Class codes of Nano Title, Abstract, Claims food *** AND emulsion*** Any IPC or ECLA **** #
5 US class 977702 **** ###
6 4 OR 5 ###
7 (Nano keywords) + Class codes of Food emulsions Title, Abstract, Claims Nano* Any IPC or ECLA ***** ###
8 US class ***** ##
9 7 OR 8 ##
10 Final query 3 OR 6 OR 9 ##

Search Strategy with French keywords

Database: Thomson Innovation
Timeline: Query: 01/01/2001 - 27/8/2011

Patent Coverage: FR, WO, EP

S.No Concept Scope Search string IPC or ECLA class codes INPADOC hits
1 (Food+Nano) keywords + Class codes of Emulsions Title, Abstract, Claims alimentaires **** C08J000302 *** ##
2 (Food + emulsion) keywords + Nano class codes Title, Abstract, Claims alimentaires **** *** ##
3 (Nano keywords) + Class codes of Food emulsions Title, Abstract, Claims Nano *** *** ##
4 Final query 1 OR 2 OR 3 ##

Search Strategy with German keywords

Database: Thomson Innovation
Timeline: Query: 01/01/2001 - 27/8/2011

S.No Concept Scope Search string IPC or ECLA class codes INPADOC hits
1 (Food+Nano) keywords + Class codes of Emulsions Title, Abstract, Claims Lebensmittel **** C08J000302 *** ##
2 (Food + emulsion) keywords + Nano class codes Title, Abstract, Claims Lebensmittel **** *** ##
3 (Nano keywords) + Class codes of Food emulsions Title, Abstract, Claims Nano *** *** ##
4 Final query 1 OR 2 OR 3 ##

Search Strategy with F-terms

Database: Thomson Innovation
Timeline: Query: 01/01/2001 - 27/8/2011

Patent Coverage: JP

S.No Concept Scope Search string F-Terms INPADOC hits
1 (Food+Nano) keywords + Emulsion class codes Title, Abstract, Claims Food **** 4F070AE15 *** ##
2 (Food + emulsion) keywords + Nano class codes Title, Abstract, Claims Food **** *** ##
3 Nano keywords + Food emulsion or encapsulation class codes Title, Abstract, Claims Nano *** *** ##
4 Final query 1 OR 2 OR 3 ##

Final search Results

Query Search strategy No. of hits
Final Query English OR French OR German OR Japanese #### (Relevancy = ##%)


Relevant Patents(Sample Set)

S.No Patent/Publication No. Assignee/ Applicant Year Title Focus Dolcera summary
1 US 2011/0038942 A1 TECHNION RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION LTD. 2011 BETA-LACTOGLOBULIN-POLYSACCHARIDE NANOPARTICLES FOR HYDROPHOBIC BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS Delivery of hydrophobic nutraceuticals A colloidally stable nano-dispersion of beta-lactoglobulin in combination with a polysaccharide has been used in foods to deliver hydrophobic bioactive compounds.
2 US 2010/0136207 A1 KOREA FOOD RESEARCH INSTITUTE 2010 NANOEMULSION AND NANOPARTICLE CONTAINING PLANT ESSENTIAL OIL AND METHOD OF PRODUCTION THEREOF Encapsulation of functional components in food A nanoemulsion is prepared using a water soluble biopolymer to encapsulate plant essential oils which are used as functional components in foods.
3 US 2010/ 0028444 A1 BASF SE 2010 USE OF WATER-DISPERSIBLE CAROTENOID NANOPARTICLES AS TASTE MODULATORS, TASTE MODULATORS CONTAINING WATER-DISPERSIBLE CAROTENOID NANOPARTICLES, AND, METHOD FOR TASTE MODULATION Nanoparticles as taste modulators Water dispersible carotenoid nanoparticles in combination with azo compounds are used to modify the bitter taste and after taste of food compositions.

Analysis sheet

Click here to download the sample patents analysis sheet


Interactive Taxonomy

Taxonomy was populated based on the detailed analysis of patents.


Assignee Analysis and IP Activity

  • Labels for all the charts below are available in the paid report.
  • The following graphs explain the placement of the different assignees in this technology area.
Top foodassignee-nanotemp.png


Top 20 Assignee-nanotemp.png


  • Geographical distribution of Patents
Geo dis-nanotemp.png


  • Geographical distribution of Assignees
Geo assignee-nanotemp.png


  • The graphs given below explain the IP activity in this technology area over the years.
IP pub-nanotemp.png


IP pri-nanotemp.png


  • Patents with the maximum number of forward citations were determined and the graph shows the top 11 patents with corresponding assignees.


Top citations-nanotemp.png

Dolcera Dashboard

Assignees were categorized based on the type of their products viz. Foods,Food additives, Biotech, Pharmaceutical,Chemical and other industries, Research and Educational Institutions etc and their patents have been shown in the Dolcera Interactive Dashboard.

A data preview of the dashboard is shown below:

Datadash-nanotemp1.png


A chart preview of the dashboard is shown below:

Chartdash-nanotemp1.png

Patent Product Mapping

  • Some products with respect to this technology area were identified and mapped to the patents from their respective assignees.


S.No Patent no. Title Assignee Products Product description by Company Snapshot
1 US7182950 Nano-sized self-assembled liquid dilutable vehicles Nutralease Ltd. Flavors - ex-NSSL mint, NSSL orange Nurtition ingredients - NSSL CoQ-10, NSSL Lycopene, NSSL Lutein, NSSL Beta-carotene, NSSL Omega-3, NSSL Vitamin A, NSSL Vitamin D3, NSSL Vitamin E, NSSL Phytosterols, NSSL Isoflavones Nutralease Ltd. Nutralease.jpg
2 US7994157 Method for dispersing plant sterol for beverage and a plant sterol-dispersed beverage, of which particle size is nanometer-scale in dispersed beverage KIP Biotech Dispersible Plant Sterols (DP Sterols) KIP Biotech LLC KIP biotech.jpg
3 US20090047388 Calcium fortified creamed honey HONEYCAL Honeycal® Calcium Fortified, Honey Spread Global Nutrition, L.L.C. Honeycal.jpg


Articles of Assignee Universities

Search strategy

Database: Scirus
Timeline: 2000 to 2012
Subject areas: Agricultural and Biological sciences, Chemistry and Chemical engineering, Engineering, Energy and Technology, Environmental sciences, Life sciences

S.No Concept Search string No. of hits
1 Keywords based search Food*  
2 Restricted based on affiliation ***  
3 1 AND 2 ###



Purchase Information

Contact information for purchasing this report: