To determine if blank microbeads ar

To determine if blank microbeads are an effective encapsulation
system it is necessary to establish a number of important factors.
Does using blank microbeads offer significant advantages such as
higher encapsulation yields or decreased bioactive losses? It is also
important to establish that the bioactive is not solely interacting
with the microbead surface but rather that it is protected within
the microbead. Blank alginate microbeads have been shown to be
a suitable encapsulation system for proteins (Chan & Neufeld,
2010; Wells & Sheardown, 2007). However there are few studies
of a similar nature on whey microbeads. Déat-Lainé, Hoffart,
Garrait, and Beyssac (2013) reported that insulin loading in whey/
alginate microbeads was approximately five times higher using
blank microbeads compared to adding insulin to the microbead
forming solution. While this study attributes the insulin encapsulation
in microbeads to absorption/adsorption it does not elucidate
the mechanism.