The ME of probiotics for their addition into foods and
beverages offers many technological benefits (Table 2). It
could be argued that ME serves to ‘deliver’ viable cells
into foods, even though they might not be released in the
product. In addition to overcoming technological problems
in the production of probiotics, cultures that are
microencapsulated in alginate beads show improved
resilience to acid in the gastric environment and to bile
solutions [18]. With gel particles, the cells are typically
not released into the food products when added; in vitro
and ex vivo studies showed that beads maintained their
integrity in simulated stomach conditions, but subsequently
released their cargo in the GI tract