Probiotics in dairy products: Microencapsulation and delivery

Dairy products (including yogurt, fermented milks, cheeses, frozen desserts and ice-cream) are suitable carriers of probiotic strains. Probiotics used as adjuncts in dairy foods mainly belong to lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria groups. The inclusion of probiotics in dairy matrices may impair the vitality and performances of strains because of several stressors involved in production technology and storage processes (e.g., fermentation temperature, packaging type, heat treatment, homogenization, interaction with other ingredients and microorganisms). Survival of probiotics in food matrices, and then in human gut, is a key factor to ensure the health benefits to human hosts.