Received: 25 June 2020 Revised: 28 November 2020 Accepted: 22 January 2021 DOI: 10.1111/1541-4337.12725 COMPREHENSIVE REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND FOOD SAFETY Advancements in liposome technology: Preparation techniques and applications in food, functional foods, and bioactive delivery: A review Kizhakkeppurath Kumaran Ajeeshkumar 2 Peruvazhipurath Appu Aneesh 2 Navaneethan Raju 1 Mathew Suseela 2 Chandragiri Narayanarao Ravishankar 2 Soottawat Benjakul 1 1 International Center of Excellence in Seafood Science and Innovation (ICE-SSI), Faculty of Agro-Industry, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand 2 ICAR - Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin, Kerala 682029, India Correspondence Soottawat Benjakul, International Cen- ter of Excellence in Seafood Science and Innovation (ICE-SSI), Faculty of Agro- Industry, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90110, Thailand. Email: soottawat.b@psu.ac.th Abstract Liposomes play a significant role in encapsulation of various bioactive com- pounds (BACs), including functional food ingredients to improve the stability of core. This technology can be used for promoting an effective application in functional food and nutraceuticals. Incorporation of traditional and emerging methods for the developments of liposome for loading BACs resulted in viable and stable liposome formulations for industrial applications. Thus, the advance technologies such as supercritical fluidic methods, microfluidization, ultrasoni- cation with traditional methods are revisited. Liposomes loaded with plant and animal BACs have been introduced for functional food and nutraceutical appli- cations. In general, application of liposome systems improves stability, delivery, and bioavailability of BACs in functional food systems and nutraceuticals. This review covers the current techniques and methodologies developed and prac- ticed in liposomal preparation and application in functional foods. KEYWORDS bioactive compound, functional food, liposome technology, novel approaches 1 INTRODUCTION Liposomes are artificially prepared lipid-based vesicles, first discovered and described in 1965 by Bangham et al. (1965) as swollen and spherical phospholipid systems or Banghasomes. Liposomes are small membrane vesicles made of lipids with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic phases used in sustainable release and stability of bioactive compounds (BACs) mainly in functional food, nutraceu- tical, cosmetics, and medical applications (Gulzar & Ben- jakul, 2020a; Khanniri et al., 2016; Sherry et al., 2013). In general, liposomes have high potential to serve as vehicles for BACs in successful delivery systems (Mirafzali, Thomp- son, & Tallua, 2014). Phospholipid molecules are the major building blocks of liposomes. Major phospholipids used in liposomes are soy lecithin, egg lecithin (Akbarzadeh et al., 2013), marine lecithin (Imran et al., 2015), and milk phospholipid (Thompson et al., 2007). In most of the formulations, the addition of cholesterol is also necessary in order to stabi- lize the membrane of vesicles (Maherani et al., 2011). Some synthetic, or semisynthetic lipid compounds are synthe- sized by derivatization of naturally occurring precursors including dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), dis- tearoylphosphatidylcholine, or dimyristoylphosphatidyl- choline (DMPC), which could be used as lipid sources (Olusanya et al., 2018). Phospholipids consist of glycerol, which acts as its backbone and polar end and fatty acid 1280 © 2021 Institute of Food Technologists R  Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf. 2021;20:1280–1306. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crf3