Recent trends in encapsulation of probiotics in dairy and beverage: A review

Probiotics are becoming popular in dairy and non-dairy matrices owing to their symbiotic effects on the human gut. However, maintaining the viability and stability of probiotics at their therapeutic level is a great challenge for manufacturers. Encapsulation technology is getting attention to maintain and target the delivery of sensitive ingredients in the food and pharmaceutical industry. Probiotics are encapsulated by using different economical biomaterials to augment their stability under stressed conditions and encapsulated by materials. Encapsulation with these biomaterials retains their recommended number in the product as well as provides a barrier against the hostile conditions in the human gastrointestinal passage. Adaptation of encapsulation technology in the dairy and beverage sector will be a way forward for the development of a different range of functional foods. The current review focuses on encapsulation, types of encapsulation material, and their suitability for the development of dairy and beverage functional foods. Practical applications Probiotic application as functional ingredients in different food, an animal feed is increasing across the globe owing to their numerous benefits. The dairy and beverage industry is the largest in the food sector and has promising probiotic application potential. Probiotic stability and viability challenges can be addressed by encapsulation using different polymer-based wall materials.