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Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Production and characterization of bioaerogel particles from strawberries and their application as oil structuring ingredient in low-saturated fat cocoa spreads(Elsevier, 2025-05-17); ; ; ; Bioaerogels bear high potential in the development of fat-replacers, due to their oil-structuring capacity. However, current aerogel preparation from biopolymeric gels requires a complex and resource-intensive processes, which might limit their adoption as oil-structuring food ingredients. A simpler and more sustainable process to produce bioaerogels could be based on their direct preparation from plant tissues rather than from biopolymeric gels. Similar to gels, also in plant tissues, water is embedded into a fibrous network, so water removal while preserving tissue structure can lead to porous materials with bioaerogel properties, avoiding biopolymer extraction, purification and sol-gel steps. This work aimed to demonstrate the potential of tissue-derived aerogels as fat-replacement ingredients in cocoa spreads. To this aim, strawberry pulp was subjected to water-to-ethanol exchange, wet milling, and supercritical-CO₂-drying. This process resulted in bioaerogel particles with high mesopore volume (0.69 cm3 g−1), low density (0.03 g cm−3) and high surface area (233 m2 g−1). The particles showed an oil absorption capacity higher than 90 %, leading to a plastic material retaining 80 % oil upon centrifugation. Strawberry bioaerogel particles were used to formulate low-saturated fat cocoa spreads. A bioaerogel particle amount as low as 0.2–0.4 g/100 gspread was enough to obtain spreads covering a wide range of rheological and spreadability properties. Preliminary techno-economic assessment demonstrated the technical and economic feasibility of the proposed process to produce bioaerogels from plant tissues intended as fat-replacement ingredients.Publicationtype: Journal Article107 22 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Conversion of natural tissues and food waste into aerogels and their application in oleogelation(Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2025-04-04); ; ; ; In this work, various natural tissues were for the first time directly converted into nanostructured aerogels by utilizing their intrinsic (meso-)porosity. In contrast to common aerogel production, no use of pure biopolymers, their extraction, dissolution, gelation or use of additives (e.g. crosslinkers, acids and bases) was necessary. The production process required washing of the wet starting material with water, a solvent exchange with ethanol and drying with supercritical CO2. The resulting materials exhibited low bulk densities (0.01–0.12 g cm−3), significant specific surface areas (108–446 m2 g−1) and mesopore volumes (0.3–2.6 cm3 g−1). Assessment of 20 different tissues including fruit pulp and peel, vegetable pulp, and mushrooms showed the generality of the approach. A broad spectrum of different microstructures was identified, whereas especially textural properties of samples derived from water rich pulp were highly similar to those found in classical biopolymer aerogels, for instance based on pectin or cellulose. Furthermore, the capability of the materials to structure liquid sunflower oil was shown: the produced oleogels exhibited exceptionally high oil uptake (max. 99%) and rheological properties similar to those of solid fats. Results suggest that supercritical drying of tissues (e.g. based on food waste) is a suitable approach for their upcycling into value added materials by a complete green and sustainable process. This research also contributes to sustainable development by transforming food waste into valuable aerogels and promoting science education through accessible, open-source STEM resources.Publicationtype: Journal Article71 32 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Pectin-based aerogel particles for drug delivery: Effect of pectin composition on aerogel structure and release properties(Elsevier, 2023-01-21); ; ; ; In this work, nanostructured pectin aerogels were prepared via a sol-gel process and subsequent drying under supercritical conditions. To this end, three commercially available citrus pectins and an in-house produced and enzymatically modified watermelon rind pectin (WRP) were compared. Then, the effect of pectin's structure and composition on the aerogel properties were analysed and its potential application as a delivery system was explored by impregnating them with vanillin. Results showed that the molecular weight, degree of esterification and branching degree of the pectin samples played a main role in the production of hydrogels and subsequent aerogels. The developed aerogel particles showed high specific surface areas (468–584 m2/g) and low bulk density (0.025–0.10 g/cm3). The shrinkage effect during aerogel formation was significantly affected by the pectin concentration and structure, while vanillin loading in aerogels and its release profile was also seen to be influenced by the affinity between pectin and vanillin. Furthermore, the results highlight the interest of WRP as a carrier of active compounds which might have potential application in food and biomedical areas, among others.Publicationtype: Journal ArticleScopus© Citations 19 86 414