3D Printing is an innovative technology within the pharma and food industries that allows the design and manufacturing of novel delivery systems. Orally safe delivery of probiotics to the gastrointestinal tract faces several challenges regarding bacterial viability, in addition to comply with commercial and regulatory stand-points. Lactobacillus rhamnosus CNCM I-4036 (Lr) was microencapsulated in generally recognised as safe (GRAS) proteins, and then assessed for robocasting 3D printing. Microparticles (MP-Lr) were developed and charac-terised, prior to being 3D printed with pharmaceutical excipients. MP-Lr showed a size of 12.3 +/- 4.1 mu m and a non-uniform wrinkled surface determined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Bacterial quantification by plate counting accounted for 8.68 +/- 0.6 CFU/g of live bacteria encapsulated within. Formulations were able to keep the bacterial dose constant upon contact with gastric and intestinal pH. Printlets consisted in oval-shape formulations (15 mm x 8 mm x 3.2 mm) of ca. 370 mg of total weight, with a uniform surface. After the 3D printing process, bacterial viability remained even as MP-Lr protected bacteria alongside the process (log reduction of 0.52, p > 0.05) in comparison with non-encapsulated probiotic (log reduction of 3.05). Moreover, microparticle size was not altered during the 3D printing process. We confirmed the success of this technology for developing an orally safe formulation, GRAS category, of microencapsulated Lr for gastrointestinal vehiculation.

TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) have been modified with ß-cyclodextrin (ßCD)-food preservative complexes. The susceptibility of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus to TiO2 NPs, sorbic acid (SA), benzoic acid (BA), and ß-Cyclodextrin-TiO2 NPs including SA or BA, was studied. At 0.5 mg mL¿1 TiO2 NPs were more effective in the inhibition of bacterial growth than modified-TiO2 NPs, achieving 71% inhibition rate. At the higher concentration of 3 mg mL¿ 1 there were no significant differences between treatments, being all of them highly effective reaching 90% inhibition. Higher treatment-doses were related to slower growth rates. Flow cytometry findings suggested efficient NPs interaction with bacteria, being more noticeable in the case of TiO2 NPs. Regarding the photocatalytic activity, under 0.600 mW cm¿ 2 irradiation, TiO2 NPs reached 95% methylene-blue dye degradation after 150 min, while ßCD-TiO2 NPs showed 3-times lower kinetic constant. Overall results suggest potential application of the new systems in active packages to protect food from microbial spoilage.