Pinhão residues have a wide range of bioactive compounds and encapsulation can be one of the alternatives to increase their
bioavailability. Thus, this work aimed to apply pinhão extract, pure and encapsulated by solid dispersion, in the formulation
of cookies as a bioactive ingredient. For that, pinhão extract was encapsulated in different biopolymers (sodium caseinate,
gelatin, and gum arabic) and with different shear mechanisms (sonication, Ultra-Turrax, and magnetic stirring). The best
encapsulation procedure has been defined by a chemometric analysis (hierarchical cluster analysis), considering thermal
properties (DSC) of particles and ( +)-catechin encapsulation efficiency (HPLC). The optimized conditions were gelatin
as encapsulation agent and Ultra-Turrax as shear mechanism (70.1 ± 2.8 °C maximum endothermic peak temperature and
96.0 ± 2.3% ( +)-catechin encapsulation efficiency). The phenolic profile of the encapsulated extract showed the presence of
( +)-catechin (0.31 ± 0.01 (mg/gparticle), protocatechuic acid (0.29 ± 0.00 mg/gparticle), and ( −)-epicatechin (0.11 ± 0.00 mg/
gparticle). Both the pure and encapsulated extracts were incorporated into the cookie formulation, which was characterized
in terms of centesimal composition, color parameters, texture, and sensory aspects. It was found that cookies with the pure
and the encapsulated extract showed significant differences concerning the centesimal composition, products added with
pinhão extract and encapsulated extract presented higher values when compared to the control, probably influenced by the
mineral content of the pinhão. In addition, higher hardness values were detected for cookies formulated with the encapsulated
extract, which possibly negatively affected the consumer’s sensory perception.
