Over the years, different food components, ranging from curcumin to quercetin, have been found to show antioxidizing effects and various other biological activities in vitro. Many of them have even exhibited health-promoting effects in preclinical studies. However, the use and effectiveness of these components in functional food development have been impeded largely by some of their unfavorable properties (e.g., poor aqueous solubility and high susceptibility to pH change), which lead to low oral bioavailability. To address this problem, one strategy has been to alter the properties of these components by structural modification. However, this leads to the formation of new undesirable compounds and may cause safety concerns. An alternative approach is to manipulate the properties of these components by using microencapsulation technologies. This strategy enhances the oral bioavailability of food components for improved nutrition, while retaining their structure. Regarding the structural versatility of carbohydrates and the potential of microencapsulation technologies to enhance nutrition, the aim of this session is to explore and present the recent advances in the processing and use of carbohydrates for food microencapsulation for improved nutrition. Speaker: Wing-Fu Lai, PhD