Spray-drying is one of the oldest and the most commonly used methods of encapsulation in the food industry. Compared with the other conventional micro- encapsulation techniques, it offers the attractive advan- tage of producing large quantities of microcapsules in a simple continuous processing operation. However, there are obvious challenges associated with using spray-drying to dry or encapsulate sensitive probiotic bacteria such as Bifidobacterium ssp., including the requirement that the cells tolerate the relatively high levels of shear and the drying conditions used for the process. One objective of the present study was to determine the most suitable way to incorporate probiotic cultures in spraydried dairybased microcapsules, in order to obtain powders containing high numbers of viable cells in a form suitable for applications in foods or nutraceutical supplements.