Microencapsulation of vitamin E based on spray-dried Pickering emulsions synergistically stabilized by gelatin and bacterial nanofibrils

Microencapsulation via spray drying can effectively enhance the processing performance and stability of vitamin E (VE), but it is still challenging to produce high VE-loaded microcapsules with low level of surface oil. Herein, we presented a facile method to prepare emulsions synergistically stabilized by gelatin and bacterial cellulose nanofibers (BCNFs), and fabricating highly loaded and stable VE microcapsules through spray drying. The emulsifying performance was significantly improved by increasing the gelatin content from 3% to 7% (<i>m</i>/<i>m</i>). In addition, as the content of BCNFs increased, the droplet sizes of these emulsions became smaller, and their physical stability also improved. After spray drying, the high VE-loaded microcapsules with an integrated spherical structure and uniform size of 10–50 μm had been successfully prepared. With the addition of 0.2% (<i>m</i>/<i>m</i>) BCNFs, the microencapsulation yield of VE microcapsules significantly increased to 81.8%, the VE oil loading rate of microcapsules was the highest at 46.51%, and the surface oil content of microencapsulation reduced from 43.2% to 37.1%. The spray-dried VE microcapsules with 0.2%–0.3% (<i>m</i>/<i>m</i>) BCNFs possessed a denser formation and improved the flowability of the powder as well as the encapsulation performance of the microcapsules. This work provided a new strategy for preparing microcapsules with low surface oil content and high VE-loaded content using BCNFs.