The growing demand for health-oriented products has accelerated research into functional foods enriched with bioactive components. This study focuses on developing synbiotic microcapsules that combine prebiotic (enzymatic produced levan) and probiotic agents to enhance gastrointestinal health and functional food quality. The microcapsules exhibited non-toxic characteristics, with 90% of particles measuring ≤1658.057 μm and displaying uniform morphology. In vitro analyses under simulated gastrointestinal conditions demonstrated high probiotic viability, with minimal reductions of 0.6-2.0 log cfu/mL. Functional bread produced on a pilot scale showed a positive correlation between butyric acid formation and probiotic cell counts, indicating effective synbiotic interaction. These results confirm the protective efficiency of the microcapsule matrix and its potential to improve probiotic stability and bioavailability. Overall, the incorporation of synbiotic microcapsules into edible film coatings offers a promising strategy for producing technologically feasible and biologically beneficial functional breads.
Keywords: Functional bread; Prebiotic; Probiotic; Synbiotic microcapsule.
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