In any design of novel functional foods, it is vital to understand
how each component interacts with the others. In the context of
the current investigation, a good understanding of bacterial interaction
with the encapsulation matrix is crucial. Our results suggest
that the high survival of the bacterial strains tested could be
explained by the hydrophobic interactions between the cells and
the exposed hydrophobic portions of the whey proteins during
spray drying, and these were found to be dependent upon the concentration
of protein. This finding is of great importance to the
dairy and functional food industry as WPI, a highly nutritious product,
+ could be used to prevent aggregation and serve as a high