Stability and prediction of shelf-life for microencapsulated ingredients

Flavours and bioactives often require increased stabilization for incorporation into a finished product. Enhanced stability and shelf-life may be obtained through the use of microencapsulation, entrapping the ingredients within a protective shell or matrix to provide protection from the surrounding environment or providing a unique controlled release profile. Once developed, it is important to have an established set of techniques and assays available to quantify the performance of the capsules for stability and shelf-life prediction. Due to the wide variety of microcapsule formulations and applications, customized evaluation is required for each encapsulation system. There are several general elements to consider when designing a system for analyzing stability and predicting shelf-life.