Probiotics are increasingly being used in numerous dairy products such as ice cream, milk powders, yoghurts, frozen dairy desserts and cheese due to their important health benefits. But, low viability of probiotic bacteria in the food still remains a major hurdle. The pH, dissolved oxygen content, titratable acidity, storage temperature, species and strains of associative fermented dairy product organisms and concentration of lactic and acetic acids are some of the factors that greatly affect the probiotic viability in the product. As set by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), the standard in order to be considered a health food with probiotic addition, the product should contain per gram at least 10-10 cfu of viable probiotic bacteria. It is necessary that the bacterial cells remain stable and healthy in the manufactured product, are sufficiently viable while moving through the upper digestive tract and are able to provide positive effects upon reaching the intestine of the host.
Cell microencapsulation technology has successfully been applied in the food industry for the encapsulation of live probiotic bacteria cells to increase viability of the bacteria during processing of dairy products and for targeted delivery to the gastrointestinal tract.
Apart from dairy products, microencapsulated probiotics have also been used in non-dairy products, such as [https://web.archive.org/web/20101123210115/http://integratedhealth.com/hpdspec/therasweet.htm TheresweetTM] which is a sweetener. It can be used as a convenient vehicle for delivery of encapsulated Lactobacillus to the intestine although it is not itself a dairy product.