Films and coatings containing probiotic microorganisms: A new approach for production of probiotic products

Probiotics are live microorganisms that adequate consumption of them leads to health effects in the host. Due to the increase in people's awareness and change in their lifestyle in recent years, the tendency to consume probiotic products has increased around the world. Production of probiotic food products have challenge because of inactivation of significant number of probiotic microorganisms during various food processes, storage or interaction with food ingredients. In addition, the digestion and passage of food through the gastrointestinal tract can affect the survival of probiotics. Therefore, maintaining the live population of probiotic microorganisms sufficiently(>106 CFU /ml or g ) until consumption of product should be considered by manufacturers. Incorporation of probiotic microorganisms in the different films and coatings are a new approach that has been proposed in the last decade to develop bioactive films with antimicrobial and health-promoting properties in order to provide new non-dairy probiotic products. The aim of this review study was evaluation of studies of probiotic films and coatings until now to conduct further research based on the available results in future.