Probiotic encapsulation and delivery using gellan gum

Abstract

The popularity of probiotics has increased dramatically in the last decades, not only for their use in the prevention and treatment of multiple diseases, but also in healthy individuals wishing to maintain a healthy gut microbiota. In this line, probiotics must survive food processing or product maturation and shelf life for successful delivery in functional foods. Moreover, probiotics must survive their transit through the gastrointestinal tract. Microencapsulation is a useful strategy to increase bacterial survival from the food processing to the site of action into the human body. The goal of this chapter is to offer an updated and comprehensive understanding of probiotic microencapsulation technology using gellan gum as a biopolymer with biomedical applications. The ultimate objective is to review the current state of art of this technology not only applied in the field of functional foods, but also in clinical therapies.