2.4.4 Effect of heat and pH The encapsulated and free samples (at neutral pH) were heated for 2 min at 20, 30, 50, 63, and 72°C and then cooled to 20°C. The count of samples was determined by the agar method (Section 2.2) (Soltani Lak et al., 2021). The influence of different pH values (i.e., 2, 3, and 6.5) on the bacteria viability for both encapsulated and free samples was determined based on the method of Sabikhi et al. (2010). pH was set by 0.1 N HCl and the sample was incubated for 1 h.