Probiotic delivery systems: a brief overview

Over the past decades, the administration of probiotic bacteria as nutraceuticals has gained much attention. Probiotics are live microorganisms which confer a health benefit on the host when administered in an adequate amount. The health benefits of probiotics are dependent on the viability and sufficient number of probiotics in the target intestine. Due to probiotic’s vulnerability to several environmental factors such as temperature and pH, maintaining the viability of probiotics has long been a hurdle to develop successful probiotic delivery systems. In this review, we provide an overview of health benefits of probiotics, hurdles in probiotic delivery, commonly used encapsulating materials and recent probiotic delivery technologies.