Yogurt enrichment with sulfated alginate microcapsules containing garlic- and cardamom essential oils-loaded β-cyclodextrin: Investigating physicochemical and biological properties

• Synthetic food additives have numerous side effects. • CEO- and GEO-loaded β-CD/S-Alg microcapsules were added to yogurt. • Effect of additive on pH, acidity, syneresis, microbial load, and anti-oxidant activity were investigated. • Microcapsules showed higher performance as food additive toward functional foods with higher shelf-life. • Optimum conditions were investigated by Design Expert software. Side effects of synthetic food additives caused considerable concerns. In this context, natural substances such as essential oils (EOs) have received significant interest owing to their safety as well as anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic, and some other biological properties. The purpose of this study was to use natural preservatives to determine the effect of sulfated alginate (S-Alg) microcapsules contaning cardamom (CEO)- and garlic (GEO) essential oils-loaded β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) on pathogenic and spoilage bacteria as well as anti-oxidant properties to increase shelf-life in yogurt. For this purpose, CEO and GEO were loaded into β-CD, and then encapsulated into S-Alg microparticles. The microcapsules containing CEO- and GEO-loaded β-CD were added to milk at three different concentrations (0.5, 1, and 1.5 % w/v) to prepare yogurt, and then anti-oxidant, pH, syneresis, sensory, and anti-bacterial properties of the resultant yogurt were evaluated during 21 days of storage. It was found that adding encapsulated CEO and GEO increased the shelf-life of yogurt and preserved its sensory and anti-bacterial properties during 21 days of storage compared to pure EOs. Effect of sulfonated alginate (S-Alg) microcapsules containing cardamom (CEO) and garlic (GEO) essential oils-loaded β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) on physicochemical as well as biological properties of yogurt were investigated extensively.