Microencapsulation is a useful tool for food manufacturers. This technique allows you to create tiny particles by encasing functional ingredients—such as plant extracts, flavors, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, vegetable and marine oils, probiotics, and enzymes—in an outer coating. There are several benefits to microencapsulation. 

There are many benefits that can be achieved through microencapsulation. Knowing when to use this technology is key to formulating products that will be successful in the market.

In Microencapsulation part 1, I discussed “hot melt encapsulation”. It is a very efficient process because the coating is applied at 100% solids as it is molten. Today’s blog, we will consider solution and suspension coating, and solvent coating.

Microencapsulation is applying a coating to small particles to isolate the substrate. People might microencapsulate in order to mask a bitter or bad taste. Ingredients could be encapsulated in order to provide a barrier from other ingredients for example, to improve stability. Ingredients might be encapsulated to provide a specific temperature release (as in a baking application), or a pH release, or a sustained or modified release. All of these reasons for encapsulation could be accomplished at Watson Inc. using their expertise in fluid bed microencapsulation.

It’s more than masking flavors or improving stability. Microencapsulation allows for changing physical properties like color, or changing oils to powders. You can also control or delay a release of an active.