Bread is a well-known and popular product among people around the world. The processing stages involved, from flour milling to baking, can result in the degradation or loss of certain nutritional and bioactive compounds. Enrichment of bread with probiotics, despite their health-promoting properties and the production of a new product with high competitiveness at the commercial level, has challenges in terms of technology and production.
For this study, articles were selected by order of preference in Web of Science, Scopus, Scimago, PubMed, Science Direct, Functional Food Science Publisher, Google Scholar and Google from 2000 to 2025 using a combination of the following keywords: “Enrichment”, “Fortification”, “Probiotics”, “Prebiotics”, “Synbiotics”, “Encapsulation”, “Bakery products”, “Bread”, “Cereals”, “Baking”, “Survival”, “Viability”, and “Bioactive compounds”. Accordingly, the challenges for incorporating probiotics into synbiotic breads, types of probiotics and functional synbiotics in bakery products, new and common methods for encapsulation of probiotics for enrichment of different synbiotic breads, application of encapsulated probiotics in enrichment based on the types of breads, and thermal stability of probiotics during baking are discussed. Breads containing encapsulated probiotics produced on a commercial level and the therapeutic properties of these breads are also investigated.
Introduction
Cereals and their products are considered as a great source of micronutrients (vitamins E and B, and minerals) and macronutrients (fibers, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) (McKevith 2004, Beikzadeh, Peighambardoust et al. 2016). Most cereal grains are milled to flour, which are then mixed with water and other additives to form a dough for baking. Therefore, some type of mechanical (grinding, milling) and thermal (baking) treatments are usually performed during the process of converting flour into dough and bread (Alldrick 2017, Beikzadeh, Shojaee-Aliabadi et al. 2019). In this process, some treatments are important to make the bread palatable and increase its digestibility, but they may lead to a reduction of some bioactive compounds (bioactives) such as some vitamins, minerals, and prebiotic components and consequently a reduction in the nutritional value of the product. As a result, it seems necessary to return the lost components to the formulation during the fortification process (Beikzadeh, Peighambardoust et al. 2018, Kamali Rousta, Bodbodak et al. 2021).
Furthermore, bread is a well-known and staple food product throughout the world, which is affordable, commonly eaten daily, highly popular in terms of taste and aroma, and has high diversity potential, representing a carrier of choice for other health-promoting bioactives (Betoret and Rosell 2020). Therefore, bread can be enriched with bioactives that can improve health and reduce various diseases without changing or reducing the organoleptic characteristics of the product (Alashi, Taiwo et al. 2018). Accordingly, there is an increasing demand from the bakery industry to adopt encapsulation technologies in order to meet both purposes of fortification and enrichment. In fact, production of food products, especially enriched bread, requires complex properties from food ingredients that are often impossible to achieve without encapsulation, e.g., delayed release, thermal stability, and appropriate sensory characteristics (Shamil, Nautiyal and Omar 2023). Encapsulation leads to particles with milli, micro, and nanometer diameters, in which one component is surrounded by another material (Alemzadeh, Hajiabbas et al. 2020, Mirza Alizadeh, Peivasteh Roudsari et al. 2022). Encapsulation of bioactives using different wall materials as a carrier is a great approach that can protect bioactives from destruction in adverse in situ/in vivo/in vitro conditions and environments (such as food matrix, different processing stages, and intestinal fluid and/or gastric acid). Furthermore, it leads to enhanced solubility, controlled release, high stability, and improved bioavailability and biocompatibility of products. The most important bioactives for encapsulation can include probiotic bacteria (PRO), carotenoids, phenolic compounds, protein-pigment materials, nucleic acids, vitamins, essential oils, proteins/peptides, enzymes, and fatty acids (Rostamabadi, Assadpour et al. 2020).
PRO are known as “living organisms that if ingested in adequate quantity, confer health benefits in the host”(FAO 2006). Prebiotics are non-digestible compounds that contribute to the well-being of their host by favorably activating or selectively stimulating the growth of a number of indigenous non-pathogenic bacteria. Synbiotics are a combination of prebiotics and PRO that act synergistically (Seyedain-Ardabili, Sharifan and Ghiassi Tarzi 2016). Incorporating PRO into bread due to the high temperatures applied during baking is challenging, which can lead to a significant reduction in PRO viability (Zhang, Chen et al. 2018). However, there is a high and emerging research interest in PRO-enriched bakery products and the production of functional products (Umaña, Bauer-Estrada et al. 2024). It is reported that the annual trade in PRO-enriched foods is one of the largest worldwide, while there are no recorded statistics on the trade in PRO-containing bread. Furthermore, according to a study, the global necessity for the bread market with an annual growth rate of approximately 3.6% is over $200 billion (Sadeghi, Ebrahimi et al. 2024).
Various studies have been conducted on the use of PRO in bread enrichment. In this regard, whole wheat and white bread was enriched with Bacillus coagulans GBI-30 6086 spores. The results showed that adding PRO had no effect on the properties of final product (pH, water activity, color, texture, specific volume, and moisture). Besides, fermentation and mixing phases did not change the number of PRO in manufactured bread. The greatest decrease in the number of PRO occurred in the crust during the baking phase (Almada-Érix, Almada et al. 2022). In another study, cream bread was produced with Lactobacillus acidophilus and alginate 2% + maltodextrin 1% + xanthan gum (XG) 0.1% carriers created the best PRO protection (Thang, Hang et al. 2019). Also, it was reported that Lactobacillus casei was more resistant to high temperature compared to L. acidophilus LA-5. Adding chitosan to hi-maize resistant starch and calcium alginate as carriers significantly increased the viability of PRO (Seyedain-Ardabili, Sharifan and Ghiassi Tarzi 2016). Similarly, bread was enriched with Bacillus subtilis and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus (Côté, Dion et al. 2013). When sourdoughs were incorporated with Saccharomyces boulardii, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, L. rhamnosus, and B. coagulans, there was an increase in the amount of arabinoxylans in bread and an improvement in the solubility of sourdough (SD) in water (Koj and Pejcz 2023). In another work, Bifidobacterium bifidum KD6 added to bread which enhanced amounts of released magnesium and zinc while decreased the released calcium and iron from bread (Nalepa, Siemianowska and Skibniewska 2012).
Present review is mainly focused on the principles, outcomes, and challenges associated with the fortification/enrichment of bread with PRO bacteria, in particular, production of synbiotic bread. We likewise discuss different types of PRO used in bread enrichment, the most common encapsulation methods, as well as the various types of fortified bread with encapsulated PRO (PROCAP), along with thermal stability PROCAP during baking process of bread. This review concludes with remarks on the challenges and prospects for commercialized breads containing PROCAP.
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Samira Beikzadeh, Alireza Sadeghi, Arezou Khezerlou, Elham Assadpour, Seid Mahdi Jafari,
Enrichment of bread with encapsulated probiotics as a functional product containing bioactive compounds: Principles, outcomes, and challenges,
Future Foods,
2025,100732,ISSN 2666-8335,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fufo.2025.100732.
