Biopolymers for administration and gastrointestinal delivery of functional food ingredients and probiotic bacteria

The functional food market is booming worldwide as consumers choose foods that taste better but provide additional health benefits. Many consumers around the world have the desire to prevent diseases and cure existing ones. Hence they are purchasing foods with bioactive ingredients that physiologically keep them healthy. The therapeutic effects of non-microbial and microbial functional foods and their use in preventative medicine are increasingly being reported. However, these bioactive ingredients are sensitive to rapid degradation during food processing, storage and during gastrointestinal transit. One suitable way of preventing degradation of these non-microbial and microbial bioactive components is to encapsulate them. This chapter outlines the principles and examples of bioencapsulation of the physiologically active biocomponents and their protection through encapsulation techniques.