Membrane applications in functional foods and nutraceuticals

The functional foods and nutraceuticals market is growing at a rapid pace. Membrane processing offers several advantages over conventional methods for separation, fractionation, and recovery of those bioactive components. In this review, membrane applications of lipid-, carbohydrate-, and protein-based nutraceuticals and some minor bioactive components have been critically evaluated. Both non-porous and porous membranes were employed for lipid-based nutraceuticals separations. The use of non-porous membranes together with non-aqueous solvents brought about the impact of solution-diffusion theory on transport through membranes. Both organic and inorganic membranes gave encouraging results for the recovery of lipid components with single- and/or multi-stage membrane processing. Two-stage ultrafiltration (UF)-nanofiltration (NF) systems with polymeric membranes provided an efficient approach for the removal of high- and low-molecular weight (MW) unwanted components resulting in higher purity oligosaccharides in the NF retentate. The charged nature of protein-based nutraceutical components had a major effect on their separation. Operating at optimizal pH levels was critical for fractionation, especially for low MW peptide hydrolysates. Processing of minor components such as polyphenols, utilized all types of porous membranes from prefiltration to concentration stages. Coupling of membrane separation and supercritical fluid technologies would combine unique advantages of each process resulting in a novel separation technology offering great potential for the nutraceutical and functional food industry.