## 3 Results and Discussion  
A total of 10 encapsulation experiments were carried out using three different coatings (MD, GA, and CMC) in varying proportions according to the experimental design described in Table 1. Visually, all obtained encapsulates were in the form of light yellowish-white free-flowing powder without agglomerate formation. Encapsulates quality is greatly affected by moisture content and water activity, significantly affecting shelf life. Water activity (a\({}_{\text{w}}\)) refers to the availability of free water in a food system, and it is responsible for biochemical reactions. In contrast, moisture content refers to the water composition of the food system. In the present study, the moisture content in the obtained encapsulates varied from 1.854 to 4.027%. The highest moisture level was recorded for encapsulates encapsulated using pure CMC. Even the CMC is well-known for its hygroscopic properties [26]. A combination of CMC and GA gave very low moisture content (2.036 and 1.854%), while in combination with MD the moisture values were something higher (2.532 and 3.394%). [PERSON] et al. [24] reported moisture values between 1.150% and 2.105% for encapsulates delivered from lemon byproducts and encapsulated using Maltodextrin, soybean protein isolate, and t-carrageenan. Water activity values varied between 0.110 and 0.240. According to a\({}_{\text{w}}\) values, all obtained encapsulates could be considered microbiologically and enzymatically stable since their water activity did not exceed 0.60 [27; 28]. Functional rehydration properties of prepared encapsulated can be described by two properties, WAI and WSI, which are inversely proportional. In this study, both parameters were significantly affected by the addition of CMC to the carrier material, where the highest WAI values were obtained for pure CMC (11.316 g/g) and carriers with high levels of CMC (MD2 CMC4 and GA2 CMC4) (Table 2). An increase in WAI (g/g) led conversely to a decrease in WSI (%) (Table 2). Aside from CMC content, the decrease in WSI can be attributed to moisture content. However, in this case, moisture level was shown to be highly dependent on CMC content. Namely, CMC has a unique chemical structure where -CH\({}_{2}\)-COOH groups are attached to several hydroxyl groups of the cellulose units, which makes CMC soluble in water in contrast to insoluble cellulose [29]. High WSI values are especially desirable for application in the food and pharmaceutical industries, enabling even distribution and simple incorporation into the final product. On the opposite end, WAI values indicate immobilized water content and are more related to product microbial stability because with the increase in WAI values, the possibility of microbiological instability increases [30]. However, too high solubility can lead to undesirable fast release of core material. In general, formulations produced by freeze-drying have a more porous structure [31], which is the main reason for its high solubility properties. Nonetheless, solubility data presented in Table 2 indicate that with a careful selection of carriers, even encapsulates produced with freeze-drying can achieve a wide range of solubility, which could be suitable for controlled release. In our previous study [12], solubility of hesperidin encapsulates (pure or delivered from citrus peel) were between 88 and 99%. Lower-solubility parameters obtained in this study could be justified with CMC addition and higher WAI values. A similar trend was observed by [PERSON] et al. [19] for citrus paradisi extract encapsulated with different carriers with the addition of CMC. Color coordinates of encapsulates are shown in Table 3. The total color differences (\(\Delta\)E) between the control (mixture of carrier material in 2:2:2 ratio) and encapsulates were greater than three units. Consequently, those changes are detectable by the human eye, which only detects color differences when \(\Delta\)E is greater than 3 [32].