## 6 Conclusions, Opportunities, and Challenges  
The concept of microencapsulation has been developed by the pharmaceutical industry for improving the drug delivery system. Microencapsulation has several advantages in the controlled and targeted delivery of functional ingredients through foods to the human digestive tract. It not only controls the release of active ingredients/drugs but also minimizes the side effects and masks the bitter taste, astringency, and odor. It also protects sensitive ingredients by the formation of a protective barrier, ensures the controlled release of active ingredients as per the desired concentration, changes liquids to solid-state,increases the solubility of insoluble constituents, and improves the bioavailability of active ingredients at their particular site of action. This controlled and targeted release of active ingredients is caused by heating, pH change, enzymatic action, shearing, or solubilization. [PERSON] et al. [109] and [PERSON] et al. [102] summarized the purpose of microencapsulation as the control of the transfer rate of active ingredients, the protection of sensitive ingredients from environmental conditions, the precision and control of the reactivity and incompatibility of active core ingredients, change in the physical state of core materials (such as increasing melting point increasing, dry powder form, flowability, stickness, and hygroscopicity), masking of the off-odor, bitterness, and color of active ingredients, the controlled release of core materials at the desired place at desired concentrations, and increasing the handling storage stability of core ingredients such as in powdered form. This technology is gaining popularity among consumers due to the inherent advantages of the delivery of active ingredients, associated health benefits and increasing awareness. As per one projection by the Global Market Insights survey of 2017, the market of functional food with encapsulated active ingredients is projected to reach up to USD 45 billion dollars by 2024. The current trend in the industry is to prepare convenient and ready-to-eat or ready-to-prepare food products and increase their nutritional value and functional properties by incorporating various functional bioactive compounds such as essential oils, polyphenols, herbs, omega-3 fatty acids with the 'fat is back label', plant extracts, etc. In the food industry, the research is mainly oriented towards avoiding unwanted interactions, enhancing bioavailability, and reducing undesired flavors. With increasing education and awareness leading to an increasing interest by consumers in how foods are prepared and ingredients added, this technology will be immensely helpful in the success of the food industry, and microencapsulated food with natural active ingredients will play important role in the future. At present and in the future, the availability of suitable wall materials that fit within the requirement of personal beliefs, food habits, and clean label requirements poses a challenge in the food industry. For example, lactose, casein, milk fat, etc., in wall materials may not be suitable for vegans, and by chance, these materials are some of the most commonly used materials in the food industry for encapsulating active ingredients [102; 234]. The food industry has explored the use of plant proteins as encapsulating materials such as soy protein, pea proteins, prolamins obtained from barley, sorghum, and corn, etc. [PERSON] et al. [4] observed the need for in-depth research at microscopic and nanoscopic levels to identify various health and safety issues and alleviate them to make this method more acceptable and compatible with green food processing. Thus, the success and application of microencapsulation technology in the food industry depends largely on the possibility to scale up the operation and devise simple and economic processes to be used at industrial scale.