Innovative microencapsulation strategy to produce probiotic based products with a dual impact on human heath

A novel challenging purpose in probiotic market, is represented by the possibility of including probiotics into nutraceutical products in order to produce probiotic capsules with a dual impact on human health. Based on this incoming demand, this work provide a novel microencapsulation strategy to introduce probiotic into nutraceutical products claimed as food supplements. Spray congealing encapsulation of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) was used to obtain an innovative formulation exhibiting a good storage stability of probiotics (not less than 109 CFU/cps) in not refrigerated conditions and the viability was evaluated for a period of 12 months. The results of the analytical characterization of the microparticles performed by Thermogravimetric Analysis, the enumeration of the living cells and the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) permitted to evaluate the efficiency of the microencapsulation process and to collect probiotic powder with the suitable morphology and not exceeding 400 μm as average diameter, in order to be included into capsules as oral dosage form.