Considering the growing concern of
iron and
folic acid deficiency, encapsulation of these nutrients and fortification into foods is emerging as an effective counter-strategy. The present work focuses on a scalable approach for the production of
iron,
ascorbic acid, and
folic acid core-shell encapsulates using novel 3-fluid nozzle (3FN) spray drying with
whey protein as core and either
pectin or
hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) as shell
polymers. The effect of shell formation was observed by comparing core-shell encapsulates with conventional 2-fluid nozzle (2FN) encapsulates. Also, the effect of pH of
whey protein on the color of encapsulates is noteworthy; reducing the pH to 4.0 significantly improved the lightness value (52.91 ± 0.13) when compared with the encapsulates with native pH (38.91 ± 0.58). Furthermore, sample with
pectin as shell
polymer exhibited fair flowability with lowest values of Hausner ratio (1.25 ± 0.04) and Carr's index (20.06 ± 2.71) and highest encapsulation efficiency for
folic acid (86.07 ± 5.24%). Whereas, encapsulates having HPMC as shell
polymer showed highest lightness value (60.80 ± 0.32) and highest encapsulation efficiency for
iron (87.28 ± 4.15%). The formation of core-shell structure was confirmed by evaluation of the surface composition which showed reduced
amine bonds and increased aliphatic and carbonyl bonds in the encapsulates prepared by 3FN spray drying. The encapsulates prepared without adjusting
whey protein pH showed the least release (∼51 % in 24 h) and bioaccessibility (∼56%) of
iron indicating the
iron-
whey protein complex formation. Based on appearance, smooth surface morphology, flowability, and release behavior, a combination of
whey protein and
pectin is recommended for co-encapsulation of
iron,
folic acid and
ascorbic acid.