Encapsulation and controlled release of folic acid

Alginate beads have been used in microencapsulation of folates because they are easy to prepare on a laboratory scale, it is a mild hydrogelling process and comparatively cheap and safe for use in incorporation into food formulations. The major drawbacks of alginate microcapsules are, however, scaling up difficulties and the porous nature of microcapsules that will leak folic acid, hence, resulting in low encapsulation efficiency. This section will, however, focus on the development of a pilot scale prototype for scaling up of hydrogelling encapsulation of folic acid (Nguyen et al., 2005) and use of mixed polymers to prevent leakage of folic acid from the hydrogel beads into the environment (Madziva et al., 2005)