The two major processes which are used commercially for the encapsulation of flavors are spray drying and extrusion. Numerous other processes exist and either show potential for commercial application (e.g., inclusion in cyclodextrins) or have found limited use in the industry (e.g., spray cooling of fats and coacervation). Each of these processes offers unique advantages and disadvantages for flavor encapsulation. For example, spray drying, the most common method of flavor encapsulation, is quite economical, offers substantial variation in encapsulation matrix, and is readily available in terms of processing capacity. Yet spray drying produces a product which is difficult to disperse in a finished application and offers only moderate protection to flavors which are subject to oxidation. This review provides a brief description of the processes most common or commercially promising in the industry. The discussion covers both the current state of knowledge about these methods and the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques.
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