Alginates are naturally-occurring, Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS), anionic polysaccharides, that have long been known for its potential to microencapsulate food ingredients. Alginates rapidly gel under benign, ambient conditions, resulting in matrices that have enteric release properties. Commonly crosslinked with calcium, alginates incorporate the food ingredient in the alginate matrix, that can be triggered to fully release the payload with the addition of strong chelating agents. Alginates also form complex coacervation matrices with protein, forming matrix-microcapsules with pH-responsive gelation properties. Microencapsulation in alginates is easily executable at the lab bench scale, but the many steps and processes can be cost prohibitive to scale-up for commercial-scale production. This talk will describe industrially-scalable spray-drying and fluid-bed coating processes to microencapsulate bioactive ingredients in crosslinked alginates and complex coacervated alginate-protein matrices. Several examples of successes and challenges in the encapsulation of protein, peptides, oil emulsions, including volatile ingredients will be described.

Industrially-scalable microencapsulation of bioactive ingredients in alginates with controlled-release properties

ACS Spring 2022

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