MICROENCAPSULATED IRON FOR FOOD FORTIFICATION

Lipid microcapsules of FeSO4, alone or with ascorbic acid, and FeCl3, were developed to fortify cheese and other high moisture foods with iron. Varying lipid coat composition and amount of core iron solution optimized their stability. A high melting fraction of milk fat (m.p. 43.5-degrees-C) was oxidized by iron and was thus unsuitable as coat material. Microcapsules made with cottonseed stearine (m.p. 62.8-degrees-C) had good oxidative stability and retained more iron under rapid stirring at 39-degrees-C than those made with hydrogenated milk fat (m.p. 49.0-degrees-C). Microcapsules having good oxidative stability and low leakage of iron were coated with stearine and had a ratio of 0.10g Fe solution/g lipid coat. Microencapsulation may allow fortification of cheese and other iron sensitive foods.