Research Progress of Preparation and Application of Probiotic Microencapsulation in Food

Probiotics are widely used in the food field because they are beneficial to human health, while they are susceptible to adverse environmental factors such as temperature, oxygen, humidity, pressure, stomach acid and bile salts. In order to maintain high survival rate of probiotics during processing, storage and digestion, different microencapsulation technologies have been used for encapsulation and protection of probiotics. Probiotic microencapsulation technology can improve the resistance of probiotics to adverse environment by creating a physical barrier, and reduce the damage of probiotics in the protective matrix, so that they can reach the target site at full potency. The review article summarizes the source, type and efficacy of probiotics, and mainly summarizes the fundamental principles, advantages and disadvantages of the common probiotic microencapsulation technologies, including extrusion, emulsification, spray drying, freeze drying, spray chilling, complex coacervation, electrospinning, electrospraying and impinging aerosols. Furthermore, an overview of the application advantages and possibilities of probiotic microencapsulation technologies in dairy products, meat products, non-milk beverages and baked products are discussed. Although many studies in vitro digestion, there are still some limitations. As for the existing problems, it is necessary to expand the microencapsulation technologies, carry out in vivo experiments, and establish a systematic database to meet the industrial production needs of probiotic food. It provides theoretical reference for developing new probiotic food.