Electrospun gelatin nanofibers as food-grade carriers for stabilizing tomato pomace phenolics during baking

Electrospun gelatin nanofibers were developed as food-grade carriers to improve the stability of tomato pomace phenolics during thermal processing and their functionality in a cake system. Nanofibers were prepared as uncrosslinked (UC-NF), chemically crosslinked with citric acid (CC-NF), and chemically and thermally crosslinked (CTC-NF) structures. Crosslinking enhanced network stabilization and water resistance, increasing encapsulation efficiency from 59.31% to 78.02% and improving phenolic retention. Structural modifications were supported by FTIR, TNBS, and TGA analyses. Incorporation of nanofibers into cakes did not significantly affect moisture content, baking loss, or volume index, although significant differences in springiness were observed. The highest total phenolic content (0.086 mg GA/g dry matter) and CUPRAC reducing capacity were observed in cakes containing CTC-NF. These results demonstrate that crosslinked electrospun gelatin nanofibers provide an effective strategy for stabilizing phenolic compounds and enabling their incorporation into thermally processed bakery products.