ABSTRACT
Vitamins are vital compounds that are involved in many biological functions in the human body. Vitamins are essential for normal growth, maintenance, and functioning of the metabolism and most of them must be supplied by the diet. On the other hand, vitamins are very vulnerable to oxidation, light, moisture, heat, and free radicals. Vitamins are completely or partially degraded during processing and storage. To avoid easily damage, preservation of vitamins can be accomplished by applying encapsulation technologies. Encapsulation allows for entrapping sensitive vitamins inside coating materials and prevents color loss, rapid degradation, and loss of vitamin activity, especially in aqueous media, thereby improving vitamin stability. By application of specific encapsulation techniques such as spray drying and carrier materials, it is possible to enhance the retention of vitamins in the food matrix and provide controlled release during digestion. Spray drying is a well-established and commonly used method for preserving vitamins. It is a comparatively low-cost, quick, flexible, and easy set-up processing technology used for good-quality microencapsulated bioactive compounds in the food industry. This chapter focuses on the role of the spray drying process in the encapsulation of both water- and fat-soluble vitamins.
