Recently, the Dairy Processing and Quality Control Innovation Team of Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IFST, CAAS), reviewed Polysaccharide-based intelligent responsive colloidal carriers for food bioactives: Structures, stimuli-triggered release mechanism and applications. The related work was published in the top international journal Advances in Colloid and Interface Science (JCR Q1, IF = 23.7). Hei Xue, a Ph.D. student enrolled in 2025, is the first author, and Professor Pang Xiaoyang and Associate Professor Wang Yunna are the co‑corresponding authors.

The article categorizes responsive natural polysaccharide materials into three major classes—animal‐derived, microbial‐derived, and plant‑derived—and systematically analyzes their structural formulas, molecular weights, and functional group characteristics. Starting from two types of intelligent responsive delivery systems (IRDS), namely endogenous responses (e.g., pH, enzymes, redox, glucose, etc.) and exogenous responses (e.g., light, magnetic field, temperature, ultrasound, etc.), the article provides an in‑depth analysis of the structural transformation of carriers and the controlled‑release mechanisms of active ingredients under various stimuli. On this basis, it comprehensively summarizes the construction strategies for colloidal carriers, compares the advantages and limitations of different carrier types in terms of protection efficiency, targeting performance, and processing adaptability, and systematically presents a complete framework from material design to functional implementation for polysaccharide-based smart-responsive carriers.

The article further focuses on the application progress of smart-responsive delivery systems in the interdisciplinary field of food science and biomedicine, with emphasis on the current research status and key technical bottlenecks in the precise delivery of functional factors such as vitamins, probiotics, and polyphenols. At present, the field is evolving from single‑stimulus responsiveness to multi‑stimuli synergistic responsiveness, and carrier design is shifting from structural optimization toward intelligent, visualized, and controllable novel system construction. However, for food applications, challenges such as large‑scale production, response precision, biosafety validation, and stability in actual food matrices still require in‑depth breakthroughs. Based on these considerations, the article proposes future research priorities, including establishing a correlation framework of "material structure–response mechanism-delivery performance," developing synergistic response systems, and integrating omics technologies with online analytical tools. These suggestions provide a clear theoretical framework and methodological reference for subsequent development of functional foods and research on personalized precision nutrition delivery.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Major Science and Technology Project of Gansu Province.