Vacuum Impregnation Process and Its Potential in Modifying Sensory, Physicochemical and Nutritive Characteristics of Food Products

The augmented promotion and consumer awareness of healthy eating and lifestyle have resulted in extensive growth of the functional food market in recent years, encouraging the use of effective techniques for food fortification. Vacuum impregnation (VI) is a non-destructive technology based on hydrodynamic mechanism (HDM) to introduce a solution with a specific composition into the intercellular spaces present in food matrices, thus producing foods tailored to specific nutritional and functional needs. VI has found diverse applications in the food industry, ranging from formulation of functional foods containing specific components like vitamins, minerals and probiotics, to altering the pH and reducing water activity to improve the sensory and thermal properties of the products. However, limited knowledge on the structural characteristics and the interaction of incorporated components with the porous cells along with non-optimization of process variables have limited the wide adaptability of this technology. This review paper is intended to provide a detailed account of the potential of VI technology in improving food functionality and the role of optimized process variables in the production of high-quality end products.