Microencapsulation of probiotic bacteria of available techniques, focusing on biomaterials-a review

In the recent past, there has been a rapid increase in the popularity of probiotic health-based products. Benefits of probiotics to human and animal health have been proven in many of scientific research. Survival and stability of probiotic organisms in functional foods have been a major concern, because a high number of organisms are needed to confer health benefits to consumers. Unfortunately, many processing (heating, freezing) and storage conditions (redox level, pH) used in dairy technology are detrimental to the viability of the probiotic bacteria. Providing probiotic living cells with a physical barrier against adverse environmental conditions is therefore an approach currently receiving considerable interest. Microencapsulation of the probiotic cells is one of the highly efficient methods, which is now under the special consideration and is being developed by various researchers. This increase has been the result of several factors, but the primary factor has been the increased awareness on the part of the food industry of the real advantages offered by encapsulated ingredients. This review focuses on probiotics microencapsulation, its methods and biomaterials utilized for encapsulation.