Fennel essential oil loaded porous starch-based microencapsulation as an efficient delivery system for the quality improvement of ground pork.

Porous starch (PS) was used as the core material carrier to adsorb fennel essential oil (FEO). Using sodium alginate (SA)-chitosan (CS) as the wall material and glutaraldehyde as the curing cross-linking agent, CS/SA/PS-FEO microcapsules were successfully prepared by polyelectrolyte complex coagulation method. The formation process, structural properties and release behavior of CS/SA/PS-FEO microcapsules were analyzed. The results showed that the essential oil was encapsulated in the form of micro-capsules according to infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. In open and closed systems, the 16-day cumulative release rate of FEO obtained was 70.62% and 43.87%, respectively indicating that the prepared CS/SA/PS-FEO microcapsules had a good sustained-release ability. The fennel essential oil micro-capsules exhibited good antibacterial and antioxidant activities, delayed the oxidation of fat and protein, reduced the total viable counts, total volatile-base nitrogen and methemoglobin. The textural property and status of water (analyzed by NMR) suggested that the quality of the meat can be maintained for an extended period by incorporating the CS/SA/PS-FEO microcapsules in the minced pork meat.