Electrospun nanofibrous membranes for food and beverage applications

In the agri-food sector, nanotechnology offers many possible solutions to problems at practically all the levels of the field. Among nanomaterials developed for practical purposes, electrospun nanofibrous membranes (NFM), produced from synthetic and bio-polymers have received great attention by virtue of their fabrication simplicity through the electrospinning technique. This technique uses electric fields to spin polymer fibers with diameters ranging from hundreds to tens of nanometers, creating non-woven polymer mats. The main advantages of electrospinning are the simplicity and low cost of the processing system, the short time required to prepare continuous structures and/or to assemble in them different components for developing novel multifunctional nanomaterials for varied applications. In this work, we demonstrate the potentialities of different nonwoven-NFM materials, for solving very specific issues of the food and beverage industry in three domains: 1. Electrochemical sensing for food quality control. Electrospinning has been established as a promising nanotechnology-based approach for the design and development of ultra-sensitive sensing systems. 2. Encapsulation systems for the controlled release of food bioactive compunds, to be used as functional ingredients or active packaging materials. The nanoencapsulation systems offer different release behaviours depending both on the cargo and on the carrier, meaning a broad range of potential applications. 3. Filter NFM for debittering process. The combination of the conventional sieving mechanisms, typical of microporous filters, with the ability of affinity membranes to remove specific compounds represent a major challenge highly pursued.