Advances in probiotic delivery: transition from conventional approaches to 3D food printing

Background The incorporation of probiotics into foods has become a major focus in food science and technology due to their well-documented health benefits, including maintaining gut microbiota balance, modulating the immune system, and improving digestive health. Despite this promise, the successful integration of probiotics into food systems remains a considerable challenge. Their sensitivity to environmental factors, such as heat, oxygen, pH, and water activity, often results in reduced viability during processing, storage, and gastrointestinal (GI) passage, thereby limiting their bioavailability and effectiveness. Scope and approach This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in 3D food printing (3DFOODP) for the delivery of probiotics. Emphasis is placed on the selection of biomaterials, formulation strategies, and optimization of printing parameters that influence structural stability, probiotic viability, and release behavior. Potential applications in the food sector, particularly in the development of functional foods aimed at enhancing health and well-being, are also explored. Finally, current limitations, including scalability, regulatory compliance, food safety, and consumer acceptance, are discussed, along with future perspectives for translating 3DFOODP-based probiotic systems into industrial practice. Key findings and conclusions 3DFOODP, as an emerging technology, offers promising solutions to overcome the limitations of the current encapsulation methods. By enabling precise control over material deposition, microstructural design, and ingredient distribution, 3DFOODP can fabricate protective matrices or customized delivery vehicles that enhance the survival and functionality of probiotics. The nature of layer-by-layer construction of 3DFOODP enables in-situ encapsulation of probiotics in pH-responsive, prebiotic-rich, food-grade biopolymers during food manufacturing, thereby eliminating the need for additional pre-encapsulation steps when in-situ strategies are applied.