The review, published in Journal of Food Engineering, notes recent, rising interest in producing functional foods containing encapsulated probiotic bacteria. The researchers explained that although many studies using dairy products like cheese, yogurt and ice cream as food carrier for probiotics have been reported, the commercial sector has seen few products containing encapsulated probiotic cells.
“It is evident that the probiotic market has a strong future as the consumers demand is increasing … As benefits provided by probiotics are now well documented, consumer requirements for food, beverage and supplement products enriched with these ingredients will increase,” said the authors, led by Dr Claire Gaiani from Nancy Université, France.
Gaiani and her team said further research must be carried out to optimise the use of encapsulated probiotic cells, “while considering numerous factors as safety and ecological production.”
“Industries and laboratories have now to provide possible technologies to an industrial scale with adequate cost,” they added.
Probiotic potential
Dr Gaiani and her colleagues explained that modern consumers “expect their food to be healthy and to prevent illness as they are increasingly interested in their personal health.”
“This explains the reason for a rising interest in probiotic health-based products,” they said.
The reviewers said that probiotic products are important functional foods, currently representing around 65 per cent of the world functional food market, with the market for probiotic products continuing to expand.
“The viability of probiotic cells is of paramount importance because to have their beneficial effects on the host’s health they must stay alive as far as their site of action,” wrote Gaiani and her co-workers,
“Many reports indicated that there is poor survival of probiotic bacteria in products containing free probiotic cells … Providing probiotic living cells with a physical barrier to resist adverse environmental conditions is therefore an approach currently receiving considerable interest,” they added.
Future trends
Gaiani and her colleagues noted that microencapsulation technologies have been explored by industry “as a way of enhancing the resistance of probiotic cells in the GI tract, and for prolonging the shelf-life of bacterial strains in food products.”
“In most cases, to encapsulate probiotic living cells, natural biopolymer such as alginate, κ-carrageenan or gellan gum have been used,” they added.
Although results for encapsulation have been “promising on a laboratory scale”, the authors warned that such technologies may present difficulties when scaling-up.
The researchers said that industry must be aware of both the technological challenges involved in producing microcapsules with the best properties, and the challenges associated with consumer behaviours and acceptance of novel foods.
“Microencapsulation can achieve a wide variety of functionalities … encapsulated probiotic cells can be incorporated in many types of food products,” said Gaiani and her team.
“In fact, probiotics can be found not only in dairy products, but also in chocolate or cereals too,” they added.
Source: Journal of Food Engineering
Volume 104, Issue 4, Pages 467-483, doi: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2010.12.031
“Encapsulation of probiotic living cells: From laboratory scale to industrial applications”
Authors: J. Burgain, C. Gaiani, M. Linder, J. Scher