Miguel Cerqueira

• PhD
• Researcher at International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory

Electrohydrodynamic processing (EHDP), such as electrospinning and electrospray, is a drying method that produces micro- and nanostructures using food-grade materials. The developed structures can be applied to different areas of the food industry, but they have gained interest in the encapsulation of compounds due to their capacity to form the dri...

This study aimed to explore the extent of research on developing meat and fish analogs using alternative proteins. It examined the novel and conventional technologies employed to produce these analogs and identified the primary alternative proteins that were used in their production through a systematic literature review (SLR) using Preferred Repor...

In this study, an emulsion‐filled gel (EFG) was developed and used for the delivery of β‐carotene. Pickering emulsions stabilized by whey protein‐cress seed gum (WPC‐CSG) nanoparticles were dispersed at three different concentrations (10%, 15%, and 20%) in a 4% sodium alginate network. To identify the optimal Pickering emulsion concentration, EFGs...

This work innovatively merges engineered food structures with additive manufacturing technology to tailor food for different dysphagia levels using filamentous Fungus Aspergillus oryzae biomass through a co-axial 3D food printing process. In order to 3D print samples with different textures, calcium chloride (CaCl2) and calcium gluconolactate (Gluc...

Nanoparticles based on food-grade materials are promising materials to develop Pickering emulsions for food applications. Initially, this study focuses on the development of nanoparticles through the utilization of a soluble complex of whey protein concentrate (WPC) and cress seed gum (CSG), which were modified by calcium chloride (CaCl2) as a cros...

To preserve food from moisture and oxygen, polymers, such as ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) are used in multilayer structures to provide oxygen barrier, while low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) is used for a water vapor barrier. While this material combination is functionally ideal, it may not comply with the new packaging recycling guidelines. Some Eu...

Oleogels are semi-solid systems that can function both as replacers of trans and saturated fats and/or as carriers of lipophilic bioactive compounds. However, bioactive compounds can affect the structure of the oleogel matrix and this effect depends on the properties of such compounds. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop oleogels loaded...

Micro-nano encapsulation can be impactful in flavour masking of bioactives, and it has the potential to be used in the development of functional food ingredients. This work aimed to develop functional foods using emulsified resveratrol, assessing the impact of resveratrol addition and its consumer acceptance. Resveratrol-loaded emulsions were produ...

In the present study, a multilayer, high-barrier, thin blown film based on a polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) blend with polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), and composed of four layers including a cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) barrier layer and an electrospun poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) hot-tack layer, was characterized in te...

This investigation assessed the potential of bacterial cellulose (BC) in two distinct forms, nanocrystals (BC-NC) and oxidized nanofibrils (BC-NF), as stabilizers for low oil-in-water emulsions (1 % v/v). The research explored the impact of ionic strength and BC concentration on the physico-chemical characteristics, stability, and rheo- logical pro...

In the present study, a multilayer high barrier thin blown film based on a polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) blend with polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), and composed of four layers, including a cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) barrier layer and an electrospun poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) hot-tack layer, was characterized in te...

Oleogels have been explored as fat substitutes due to their healthier composition compared to trans and saturated fats, also presenting interesting technological perspectives. The aim of this study was to investigate the compositional perspective of multicomponent oleogels. Structuring ability of lecithin (LEC) (20 or 90 wt% of phosphatidylcholine...

Gels are systems that consist of solid and liquid components and have a semisolid consistency. Both hydrogels and oleogels are types of gels; the difference between the two lies in the polarity of the solvent entrapped in the gel. In their natural state, hydrogels are polar, while oleogels are apolar systems. Combining oleogels with hydrogels resul...

In this introductory chapter, we embark on a journey into the world of oleogels, a topic of increasing significance within the food industry. The exploration begins with an examination of the challenges faced by the industry, and particularly in incorporating oleogels into their products, while aligning with current consumer trends. Following, we d...

In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in the use of oleogels as fat mimetics. But recently, their capability to act as functional ingredients (from a nutritional and health perspective) has gained attention, bringing additional interest from the researchers and industry. While the technological strategies to form a network that...

In this work, alpha-tocopherol (α-TOC) was encapsulated in poly(lactic acid) nanoparticles (PLA NPs) and added to low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films with the aim of producing an active film for food packaging applications. PLA NPs loaded with α-TOC were produced through nanoprecipitation and dried using two methods (freeze-dryer and oven). LDPE-...

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC)-based microparticles and modified starch emulsions (OSA-MS) were loaded with resveratrol and characterized regarding their physicochemical and thermal properties. Both delivery systems were subject to an in vitro gastrointestinal digestion to assess the bioaccessibility of resveratrol. In addition, cell-based st...

Nowadays, there is a growing trend in the consumption of bioactive food ingredients and their use in the production of functional foods. Since these bioactive components are very sensitive to process and environmental conditions and also to deliver them appropriately into our body, encapsulation technology has been emerged as a promising solution t...

The effectiveness of an alginate/chitosan nanomultilayer coating without (NM) and with Aloe vera liquid fraction (NM+Av) was evaluated on the postharvest quality of tomato fruit at 20 °C and 85% relative humidity (RH) to simulate direct consumption. Both nanomultilayer coatings had comparable effects on firmness and pH values. However, the NM+Av co...

Biosurfactants (surfactants synthesized by microorganisms) are produced by microorganisms and are suitable for use in different areas. Among biosurfactants, rhamnolipids are the most studied and popular, attracting scientists, and industries’ interest. Due to their unique characteristics, the rhamnolipids have been used as synthetic surfactants’ al...

Herein, we review the current state-of-the-art on the use of micro-and nano-delivery systems, a possible solution to some of the drawbacks associated with the incorporation of resveratrol in foods. Specifically, we present an overview of a wide range of micro-nanostructures, namely, lipidic and polymeric, used for the delivery of resveratrol. Also,...

Due to environmental concerns, there is an increasing need to reduce the use of synthetic and non-renewable packaging materials to reduce waste and increase sustainability. This study aimed to characterise sodium alginate edible-based films (SA) incorporated with laurel leaf extract (LLE) and olive leaf extract (OLE) obtained by ultrasound-assisted...

Chitosan is obtained from the deacetylation of chitin, and it is known to possess antimicrobial activity. It has attracted attention as it may be used for treating infections caused by different types of microorganisms due to its broad spectrum. Its application in the form of micro- or nanoparticles (CM/CN) has expanded its usage, as in this form,...

Sunflower oil (SO) oleogel was initially prepared using 5 % (w/w) sunflower wax, hydrophobic (Span 80), or hydrophilic (Tween 80) emulsifiers. This study involved the physicochemical characterization of the batter and cake prepared through partial and complete replacement of butter with the oleogels. Batter and cake properties were improvised in T8...

This work had as main objective to encapsulate vitamin D3 (VD3) into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) using rhamnolipids as surfactant. Glycerol monostearate and medium chain triglycerides with 2.625 % of VD3 were used as lipid materials. The three formulations of NLCs with VD3 (NLCs + VD3) were composed by 99 % of aqueous phase, 1 % of lipid p...

The objective of this work was to prepare different concentrations of liposomes based on lecithin containing quercetin, and evaluate their effect on the properties of galactomannan films obtained from Cassia grandis seeds. Quercetin-loaded lecithin liposomes (QT-LL) were obtained by the ethanol injection method by incorporating quercetin in differe...

Currently, one-third of all food produced worldwide is wasted or lost, and bacterial contamination is one of the main reasons. Moreover, foodborne diseases are a severe problem, causing more than 420,000 deaths and nearly 600 million illnesses yearly, demanding more attention to food safety. Thus, new solutions need to be explored to tackle these p...

The viability of SARS-CoV-2 on food surfaces and its propagation through the food chain has been discussed by several stakeholders, as it may represent a serious public health problem, bringing new challenges to the food system. This work shows for the first time that edible films can be used against SARS-CoV-2. Sodium alginate-based films containi...

In the present study, RE presented higher antioxidant capacity and higher content of total phenolic compounds than GTE. While the main phenolic compounds identified in RE were carnosic acid, carnosol and rosmarinic acid, in GTE catechins, rutin and gallic acid were the main identifies compounds. Extracts were incorporated into PLA active films, fol...

There is a pressing need to create a more sustainable, healthy, and resilient food system to address emerging global challenges, such as feeding a growing population, reducing the carbon footprint of food production, decreasing pollution, and improving consumer health. Scientists and technologists from many disciplines are developing innovative app...

Over the last years, foods are being tailored in their compositional profiles and structural properties to promote or enhance human health and well-being over and above simple nutrition. In this context, there is a need for a detailed understanding of the physical, biochemical and sensorial properties of the food categories involved since any modif...

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a biopolymer of enormous value aggregation for in general industry. The vitreous humor of the eyeball from Nile tilapia contains appreciable amounts of hyaluronic acid. In this sense, the aim of this work was to extract and characterize hyaluronic acid from the eyeball of the Nile tilapia for biomedical applications, adding...

Marine biofouling is a natural process often associated with biofilm formation on submerged surfaces, creating a massive economic and ecological burden. Although several antifouling paints have been used to prevent biofouling, growing ecological concerns emphasize the need to develop new and environmentally friendly antifouling approaches such as b...

Aim: The unique properties of plant-derived proteins demand new strategies for their incorporation into foods. One of the strategies is the ultrasonication process (US), which modifies proteins’ structural and physiological properties and thus extends its application. In this work, we study the influence of the US on protein structural features and...

Encapsulation can be used as a strategy to protect and control the release of bioactive extracts. In this work, an extract from Spirulina sp. LEB-18, rich in phenolic compounds, was encapsulated in biopolymeric particles (i.e., composed of alginate) and characterized concerning their thermal behavior using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), s...

Structured vegetable oils can replace animal-derived fats providing healthier products. 3D food printing is a toll for designing complex and tailored foods. Nonetheless, the printability of oleogels is yet an underexplored topic. Herein, we report on water-free sunflower oil oleogels comprising lecithin and phytosterols with room temperature printa...

Edible coatings based on natural sources are a good alternative to protect and increase the shelf-life of the fruits. In this work, active carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-based edible coatings enriched with functional ingredients, extracted from spent coffee grounds (SCG), were produced and used to increase the shelf-life of fresh goldenberries. Thus...

Peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) and mammee apple (Mammea americana L.) are fruits found in Latin America, North of South America (Amazonia) and Western India, traditionally consumed with the disposal of the seeds. These materials presented high caloric value, essential amino acids, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, absence...

The nutritional quality of processed foods is being increasingly questioned by consumers and the trend toward diets that promote health and well‐being has thus grown significantly. With this in mind, food science has sought to develop products replacing ingredients that can be harmful to consumers. This is not an easy task because, besides health‐...

The present work aimed at developing a novel water‐in‐oleogel emulsion using a mixture of γ‐oryzanol and phytosterols as gelator. The gelator network was severely affected by the presence of water, with single β‐sitosterol crystals being the main contributors to the self‐standing ability of the emulsions. X‐ray analyses have shown sharp crystallogr...

Metallic and bimetallic nanostructures have shown interesting chromatic and antibacterial properties, and they can be used in various applications. In this work, zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) nanostructures were produced with different morphologies: (i) pure Zn; (ii) Zn-Fe nanoalloys; (iii) Zn-Fe nanolayers (Zn-Fe NLs); and (iv) Zn nanolayers combined wi...

Bioactive compounds (BCs) extracted from plants have been under study since ancient times due to their outstanding features such as antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. This has led to the development of various extraction techniques, which are classified as conventional (e.g., Soxhlet extraction, maceration, an...

Active food packaging is a dynamic area where the scientific community and industry have been trying to find new strategies to produce innovative packaging that is economically viable and compatible with conventional production processes. The materials used to develop active packaging can be organized into scavenging and emitting materials, and bas...

Growing awareness concerning human health and sustainability has been continually driving the need to change consumers’ habits and develop new bio-based and environmentally friendly materials that could be used in new product formulations [...]

Plant-derived proteins have been emerging and growing in interest over the past few years due to their interesting properties and the trend to replace animal-derived proteins. Ultrasonication processing can be used to develop nanoemulsions based on plant proteins that are kinetically stabilized by their small dimension, unlike classic emulsions In...

Active packaging refers to a set of systems usually aiming to protect and extend the shelf life of food. The incorporation of metal (e.g. zinc, silver, copper, and gold) and metal oxide (e.g. zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, and magnesium oxide) nanoparticles into petroleum-based and bio-based polymers has progressively increased for active packaging...

Functional materials have become key drivers in the development of multiple high-end technologies. Electrohydrodynamic processing (EHDP) is a straightforward method to generate polymer micro- and nanostructures that can be applied to the food, pharmaceutical, environmental, and biomedical areas, among others, since these can yield materials with hi...

The aim of this work was to produce monomodal and stable thyme and lemon balm-loaded nanoemulsions (NE), through a low energy approach. NEs were prepared by the emulsion phase inversion method using sunflower oil as carrier and Tween 80 as surfactant. Different surfactant-to-oil ratios (SOR) and essential oil (EO) loadings were evaluated. Nanoemuls...

Electrohydrodynamic processing (EHDP) allows the use of a wide range of biopolymers and solvents, including food-grade biopolymers and green solvents, for the development of micro- and nanostructures. These structures present a high surface-area-to-volume ratio and different shapes and morphologies. The aim of this work was to design and produce hy...

Novel fat mimetic materials, such as oleogels, are advancing the personalization of healthier food products and can be developed from low molecular weight compounds such as γ-oryzanol and β-sitosterol. Following molecular assembly, the formation of a tubular system ensues, which seems to be influenced by elements such as the oleogelators’ concentra...

The processing and valorization of hemicellulose fraction biomass from lignocellulosic material, it is an important alternative in these days for the production of high added value compounds and bioenergy in terms of biorefinery philosophy and impacting the development of the circular bioeconomy. For this reason, the development of processes at pil...

Novel physic and chemical properties can be obtained by the micro and nanoengineering of food-grade compounds and ingredients to obtain fibres, nanotubes, films, coatings, and 3D structures, such as micro and nanoparticles, emulsions and oleogels. These new properties allow enhancing the stability and the controlled release of bioactive compounds....

The concern about consuming eco-friendly products has motivated research in the development of new materials. Therefore, films based on natural polymers have been used to replace traditional polymers. This study consists of a production of films based on gelatin reinforced with black pepper essential oil-loaded nanoemulsions and Cloisite Na⁺. The f...

Recently, there has been a growing interes in plant-derived proteins due to their interesting properties and the trend to replace animal-derived proteins. One of the emerging interests is their use to develop nanoemulsions that are kinetically stabilized by their small dimension, unlike classic emulsions. In this work, oil-in-water nanoemulsions w...

Chronic wounds remain difficult to treat in present-day society due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria and bacterial biofilms, which hampers therapy. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative opportunistic bacterium frequently found in wound infections. Phage therapy has shown to be a promising means to fight bacterium involved in non-healing wounds...

The use of an appropriate oleogelator in the structuring of vegetable oil is a crucial point of consideration. Sunflower wax (SFW) is used as an oleogelator and displays an excellent potential to bind vegetable oils. The current study aimed to look for the effects of hydrophobic (SPAN-80) and hydrophilic (TWEEN-80) emulsifiers on the oleogels prepa...

All-cellulose composites are promising materials due to the expectable strong filler-matrix interaction. In the present work, films based on bacterial cellulose were produced, using nanofibrils as matrix and nanocrystals as filler, as well as glycerol as plasticizer. The effect of the nanocrystals content (0–5 wt.%) on the mechanical properties, ba...

Recently, plant-derived proteins have increased in interest and use owing to a combination of interesting properties and industry-wide trends to replace animal-derived proteins. Electrohydrodynamic processing can be used to develop microstructures and nanostructures of plant proteins in a facile manner and, thus, increase their opportunities in the...

The concern about consuming eco-friendly products has motivated research in the development of new materials. Therefore, films based on natural polymers have been used to replace traditional polymers. This study consists of a production of films based on gelatin reinforced with black pepper essential oil-loaded nanoemulsions and Cloisite Na+. The f...

The presence of several highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria and biofilm formers in chronic wounds is a serious impediment to wound healing. The Gram-negative opportunistic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is commonly isolated from wound infections. To overcome antibiotics' ineffectiveness, bacteriophages (phages) with active killing capability aga...

Bimetallic nanoparticles have gained attention in the last decade due to their unusual characteristics compared to monometallic counterparts. However, production of such particles with controlled morphologies and composition needs to be explored and the mechanisms understood. In this work, we demonstrate a fast and simple process to obtain flower-l...

Chronic wounds continue to be an important topic in contemporary society as they involve millions of patients. The major barrier in wound healing is the prevalence of different highly antibiotic-resistant microorganisms and biofilm formers. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen, is frequently isolated from wound infections....

Implantable medical devices (IMDs) are susceptible to microbial adhesion and biofilm formation, which lead to several clinical complications, including the occurrence of implant-associated infections. Polylactic acid (PLA) and its composites are currently used for the construction of IMDs. In addition, chitosan (CS) is a natural polymer that has be...

Oleogels are semi-solid materials containing a large fraction of liquid oil entrapped in a network of structuring molecules. In the food industry, these formulations can be used to mimic fats and to deliver bioactive compounds. In the last decade, there has been increasing interest in these structures, not only from a scientific point of view, i.e....

The growing requirement for sustainable processes has boosted the development of biodegradable plastic-based materials incorporating bioactive compounds obtained from waste, adding value to these products. Chitosan (Ch) is a biopolymer that can be obtained by deacetylation of chitin (found abundantly in waste from the fishery industry) and has valu...

Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)-based films can act as a protective barrier in food surfaces and a carrier of bioactive compounds, such as curcumin. However, incorporating curcumin in hydrophilic matrixes can be a challenge, and new strategies need to be explored. In this work, CMC-based films containing free curcumin and curcumin-loaded nanohydrogels...

It is known that ɣ-oryzanol and β-sitosterol are able to form tubular systems which are effective to induce the structuring of edible oils, however, the gelation mechanism is not yet fully understood. Factors like gelators' concentration and ratio, oil medium, cooling rates and storage time are determinant. This work aimed at assessing the effects...

Decisive processing and technological requirements like saturated fat reduction and healthier fatty acids delivery are immediate objectives of the food industry. In this work, our main focus was the development of gelled O/W emulsions, using oleogels as filling particles, that could act as healthier fat substitutes, namely for meat-based products....

The food industry has increased its interest in using “consumer-friendly” and natural ingredients to produce food products. In the case of emulsifiers, one of the possibilities is to use biopolymers with emulsification capacity, such as octenyl succinic anhydride modified starch, which can be used in combination with other polysaccharides, such as...