Probiotic cell-based encapsulation of natural pigments for maintaining texture and color quality in functional jelly.

UNLABELLED: The simultaneous incorporation of probiotics and natural pigments into food matrices often causes undesirable changes in texture and appearance. This study aimed to develop a functional jelly containing probiotics and natural colorants without compromising quality by encapsulating carrot and red paprika extracts within probiotic cells. The extracts were prepared with ethanol solutions of different concentrations and encapsulated into commercial probiotic cells using a vacuum-assisted method. The highest encapsulation efficiencies were obtained at 50% ethanol (58.6% for carrot and 27.2% for paprika). When probiotics and free colorants were added together, the jellies became excessively firm. However, encapsulating the colorants within probiotic cells mitigated this effect, resulting in texture properties similar to the control. The encapsulated pigments also provided uniform and natural color appearance in the jelly. These findings suggest that probiotic cell-based encapsulation enables simultaneous incorporation of probiotics and natural colorants into jelly products while maintaining desirable texture and visual quality. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-026-02232-7.