Microencapsulation of Fish Oil by Spray Drying using Different Wall Materials

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different wall material on the microencapsulation effi- ciency of microcapsules containing fish oil. The present work reports on the microencapsulation of fish oil by spray drying using hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) 2910, maltodextrin, gelatin, sodium caseinate as wall materials. The emulsion stability was assessed by emulsion stability index value (ESI). The microstructural properties of microcapsules was eval- uated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and microencapsulation efficiency (ME) was assessed by soxhlet method. The highest ESI and ME were observed in the case of a 1:1 gelatin/sodium caseinate ratio and 1:1 glycerin fatty acid ester/ lecithin ratio, and ME of microcapsules was increased with increasing the ESI of emulsion. Thus, the stability of emulsion was a critical factor for the encapsulation of fish oil.