The Combined Usage of β-Cyclodextrin and Milk Proteins in Microencapsulation of Bifidobacterium bifidum BB-12.

The present study aimed to determine the effects of combined usage of β-cyclodextrin with whey protein isolate and sodium caseinate on the microencapsulation of Bifidobacterium bifidum-BB12 by spray drying.From the results, the highest count of B. bifidum was provided by whey protein isolate as 8.62 log CFU/g. The increasing concentration of β-cyclodextrin considerably increases gastric and intestinal resistance to B. bifidum cells. In the gastric and intestinal test, the highest protection was determined in whey protein isolate substituted with 10% β-cyclodextrin with reduction rates of 0.98 and 3.30%, respectively. Moreover, free cells did not survive in the same gastric conditions. The lowest hygroscopicity was determined in whey protein isolate as 8.57%. It must be noted that increasing β-cyclodextrin concentration in carrier material combination led to an increase in hygroscopicity of microcapsules. In general, substitution with β-cyclodextrin increased the particle size of microparticles, and microcapsules produced with whey protein isolate had a smaller size than that of sodium caseinate.