The shelf-life of foods is affected by several aspects, mainly chemical and microbial events, resulting in a considerable decline in consumer’s acceptance. There is an increasing interest to substitute synthetic preservatives with the plant-based bioactive ingredients which are safe and natural. However, full implementation of this replacement is postponed by some challenges associated with bioactive ingredients, including their low chemical stability, off-flavor, low solubility, and short-term effectiveness. Encapsulation could overcome these limitations. The present review explains current trends in applying natural encapsulated ingredients for food preservation based on a classified description including essential oils, plant extracts, phenolics, carotenoids, etc. and their application for extending food shelf-life mostly dealing with antimicrobial, ant-browning and antioxidant properties. Encapsulation techniques, especially nanoencapsulation, is a promising strategy to overcome their limitations. Moreover, better results are obtained using a combination of proteins and polysaccharides as wall materials than single polymers. The encapsulation method and type of encapsulants highly influences the releasing mechanism and physicochemical properties of bioactive ingredients. These factors together with optimizing the conditions of encapsulation process leads to a cost-effective and well encapsulated ingredient which is more efficient than its free form in shelf-life improvement. It has been shown that the well-designed encapsulation systems, finally, boost the shelf-life-promoting functions of the bioactive ingredients, mostly due to enhancing their solubility, homogeneity in food matrices and contact surface with deteriorative agents, and providing their prolonged presence over food storage and processing via increasing the thermal and processing stability of bioactive compounds, as well as controlling their release on food surfaces, or/and within food packages. To this end and given the numerous wall and bioactive core substances available, further studies are needed to evaluate the efficiency of many encapsulated forms of both conventional and novel bioactive ingredients in food shelf-life extending since the interactions and anti-spoiling behaviors of the ingredients in various encapsulation systems and foodstuffs are highly variable that should be optimized and characterized before any industrial application.

食品的保质期受多个方面的影响，主要是化学和微生物事件，导致消费者的接受度大大下降。用安全，天然的植物基生物活性成分替代合成防腐剂的兴趣日益浓厚。然而，与生物活性成分相关的一些挑战，包括它们的低化学稳定性，异味，低溶解度和短期有效性，推迟了这种替代的全面实施。封装可以克服这些限制。本综述基于对包括精油，植物提取物，酚类，类胡萝卜素等在内的分类描述，说明了将天然封装成分用于食品保存的当前趋势。以及它们在延长食品保质期方面的应用，主要涉及抗菌，抗褐变和抗氧化性能。封装技术，尤其是纳米封装，是克服其局限性的一种有前途的策略。此外，与单一聚合物相比，使用蛋白质和多糖的组合作为壁材料可获得更好的结果。包囊的包囊方法和类型在很大程度上影响生物活性成分的释放机理和理化性质。这些因素与优化封装过程的条件共同导致了一种经济有效且封装良好的成分，在延长保质期方面比其游离形式更有效。事实证明，经过精心设计的封装系统，增强生物活性成分的货架寿命促进功能，主要是由于提高了它们的溶解度，在食品基质中的均质性以及与变质剂的接触表面，以及通过提高生物活性成分的热稳定性和加工稳定性，使其在食品存储和加工过程中的存在时间更长化合物，以及控制其在食品表面或食品包装内的释放。为此，考虑到可用的大量壁和生物活性核心物质，