A comprehensive review on microencapsulation of probiotics: technology, carriers and current trends

•Consumer interest towards non-dairy alternatives is increasing.•Selection of compatible probiotics is a key factor in developing a probiotic product.•Microencapsulation improves the efficacy and viability of probiotics.•Choice of suitable carrier material for microencapsulation is imperative. Consumer interest in probiotics is significantly growing due to their positive impact on their health. Dairy products are common and most preferred probiotics "delivery vehicle" in the food industry. However, dairy products are associated with increased risk to people, with lactose intolerance, galactosemia, allergy to milk proteins, and high cholesterol levels. For such cases, non-dairy based probiotic foods could offer a good alternative. Among non-dairy foods, fruit juice is more dietary inclusive, convenient, and well accepted by all the age groups. Therefore, fruit juice could be used as a suitable non-dairy food carrier in probiotic delivery. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are the two main strains used commercially worldwide for preparing probiotic products with proven health benefits. However, protecting the probiotic cells is the key for probiotic formulation in order to guarantee the survival. Therefore, various encapsulation techniques, cell viability, and suitable carrier materials in downstream processing and utilization are discussed in the review. Among different encapsulation techniques, spray drying emerged as an alternative technique for better utilization of probiotics in fruit juices with possibilities for industrial applications due to cost-effective and continuous process. Therefore, spray drying could be considered as an efficient encapsulation technique in food industry for fruit juice probiotification.