Consumers' pursuit to a healthy lifestyle has promoted people to develop new technologies that can prolong the shelf life of food without the use of preservatives. Compared with other types of preservation, edible microcapsules containing essential oils (EOs) are becoming more and more popular especially the starch microcapsules containing essential oil (EOs-starch microcapsules) because of their environmentally friendly, healthier characteristics and the ability to carry active ingredients. In addition, the EOs-starch microcapsules can also reduce the flavor influence and prolong the action time of essential oil on food through its slow release effect, which can promote the use of EOs in food. Understanding the different collocation of edible starch microcapsules and EOs and the related antibacterial mechanism will be more effective and targeted to promote the application of EOs in the real food system. The review focus on the contribution of EOs-starch microcapsules to prolong the shelf life of food products, (1) binding characteristics of EOs-starch microcapsules were analyzed, (2) systematically summarizing the main materials and methods for preparing the EOs-microcapsules, (3) specifically addressing the action mechanisms of EOs-starch microcapsules on microorganism, (4) discussing the applications of EOs-starch microcapsules in specific food.
Keywords: Starch microcapsules; aessential oil; binding characteristics; food preservation; formulation; mechanisms.