*2.4. Preparation of MCE-CCP Ingredients*

MCE was encapsulated in 50 or 75% CCP (*w*/*w*) to obtain MCE-CCP ingredients as follows: freeze-dried CCP was dissolved in water at 10 mg/mL final concentration and hydrated at 4 ◦C overnight. The carrier solution and MCE (core) were mixed at 1:1 or 1:3 ratio (*w*/*w*), and the obtained ingredients were dried under vacuum in a drying oven (42 ◦C, 8 mbar) for 48 h (Goldbrunn 1400, Expondo, Berlin, Germany) [17].

#### *2.5. Mechanical Testing*

The CCP rheological properties were investigated using a Kinexus DSR Rheometer (Netzsch, Selb, Germany) equipped with a parallel-plate geometry (acrylic diameter 20 mm; gap 34 μm). CCP viscosity was measured using a flow step program, at increasing shear rate (0.001–1000 s<sup>−</sup>1), to investigate their non-Newtonian behavior. To evaluate the storage (G') and loss (G") moduli of CCP, frequency sweep experiment results were recorded as a function of angular frequency (0.1–100 Hz) at 0.5% fixed strain. To test CCP thixotropy, shear-thinning tests were performed by a series of peak hold tests in which shear rates were kept constant, as previously reported by Pugliese et al., (2021) [22]. Briefly, a shear rate of 0.01 s−<sup>1</sup> and a shear rate of 5.3 s−<sup>1</sup> were applied in sequence for 60 and 20 s, respectively. Subsequently, a high shear rate of 1000 s−<sup>1</sup> for 20 s followed by a shear rate of 5.3 s−<sup>1</sup> for 20 s were applied. Lastly, a shear rate of 0.01 s−<sup>1</sup> was used to simulate the shear condition

of CCP at rest. Each experiment was performed in triplicate, and data were processed using OriginLabTM 8 software.
