Nature’s sophisticated architecture: a strategic approach for protein-polysaccharide complexes to address the “shelf-life vs. bioavailability” dilemma of polyphenols in food applications

Abstract

Polyphenols exhibit significant potential as functional food ingredients owing to their pronounced health-promoting effects. However, their practical application is substantially limited by a central technological dilemma: the trade-off between chemical instability during food processing and storage, and low bioavailability within the human gastrointestinal tract. This review focuses on a nature-derived, biocompatible, and sustainable strategy to address this challenge, which involves the use of molecular self-assembly between proteins and polysaccharides to construct nano- or micro-scale delivery systems. We systematically elucidate how these natural biopolymer complexes, through their sophisticated structural designs, offer a promising solution to mitigate the aforementioned dilemma. The