The global food encapsulation market is projected to reach about $39 billion by the year 2015, according to a report from Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA).

Growth in the market is driven especially by factors such as changing dietary habits, increased popularity of exotic flavors, cuisines and gourmet varieties, rising emphasis on preservation of food quality, and speed and agility in new product innovation.

Optimum flavor delivery is critical to the success of any food product, and to ensure that the product offers the finest sensory experience is quite a challenge, since flavors tend to deteriorate along the various manufacturing and packaging processes, thus making the journey from plant to the palate an arduous one.

Encapsulation of flavors and fragrances in food has been a long established, commercial practice to enhance appearance, taste and flavor of foods, prevent oxidation, nutritional loss and evaporation of core, sensitive ingredients, among others. Encapsulation technologies also aid in manipulating volatile, reactive additives and other ingredients into stable ingredients with acquired properties that add value to the final processed food.

The development of food encapsulation technologies such as microencapsulation, nanoencapsulation, macroencapsulation and hybrid technologies have radically transformed the method of food processing and preservation over the years. Expansion of application areas away from the conventional taste masking, color masking, oxidation and flavor stabilization toward food fortification, and its use as biocatalyst immobilization system, spells opportunities.

While the recent economic turmoil wreaked havoc on consumers’ personal financial security and presented numerous challenges for the food industry in general, food encapsulation technologies have remained largely shielded from the recessionary blues. Growing health awareness and time constraints and the ensuing demand for functional and convenience foods has and will continue to drive growth and development of the food encapsulation market.

In the coming years, food encapsulation technologies are forecast to find lucrative niche applications in the gourmet food segment. Additionally, increased interest and adoption of these technologies will be witnessed in the infant, functional and health food segments where food fortification ranks important and where nutritional and therapeutic ingredients need to be protected against flavor, taste and nutritional degradation. Venture capital investments are expected to be especially high in the functional foods segment, given the rapidly aging population and growing demand for foods with disease prevention benefits.

Like any other industry, several challenges continue to frustrate the use of encapsulation technologies in food processing such as maintaining optimum physical stability of encapsulated food, particularly nano-encapsulated foods, during processing and packaging. Ingredient manufacturers need to still iron out issues encountered in reduction in capsule sizes—“microencapsulation,” and controlled targeted release behaviors. It is therefore not surprising that a large percentage of research projects are focused on shrinking capsule sizes, and enhancing adequate bioavailability of encapsulated ingredients.

The report titled “Food Encapsulation: A Global Strategic Business Report,” provides a review of noteworthy market trends, growth drivers and challenges. The report also enumerates recent acquisitions and other strategic industry activities.