Probiotics have demonstrated various health benefits but have shown poor stability to sustain food processing, storage conditions and in human gut. Most probiotics have low survival rate even when they are stored at low temperature and the number of viable bacteria are actually below the desired level (10 7 cfu/gr). There are several ways for protecting probiotics, including their encapsulation. Biopolymer beads are commonly studied for encapsulating probiotics to improve their stability against different harsh conditions. The aim of this study was to encapsulate Lactobacillus plantarum PTCC1896 with a combination of pectin, sodium caseinate and whey protei using a combination of emulsion and spray drying methods and its effect on the viability of encapsulated probiotic was investigated. So first the ratio of pectin, sodium caseinate and whey protein wa optimized for emulsion formation and spray drying. For encapsulation spray-dried lactobacillus plantarum was suspended in soy oil that was emulsified in a neutral aqueous phase with whey protein and sodium caseinate to prepare primary solid/ oil/ water (s/o/w) emulsion. Subsequently , pectin was electrostatically deposited onto the droplet surface at pH 4/0 to form secondary emulsions and after cross- linking with calcium chloride for 2 hours, it was dried. The encapsulation efficiency was 77/5% and the size of capsules was smaller than 20 µm. Furthermore a 1/3 log(cfu/gr powder) reduction was observed after spray drying for free Lactobacillus plantarum , while a 2/4 log(cfu/g powder) reduction was observed for encapsulated cells. It should be noted that encapsulating of Lactobacillus plantarum with multiple layers enhanced the viability of this probiotic after digestion in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids. Free and encapsulated L. plantarum were added to ultra-filtered cheese and the viability of probiotic was determined during 60 days storage within 15 day intervals. The pH, acidity, fat, protein, salt and moisture content changes were monitored throughout the above mentioned period. Both free and encapsulated L. plantarum showed reduction viability during storage time but there was no significant difference( p›0/01) between free and capsules viability reduction, at the end of storage time in cheese. In all cheese treatments the pH and moisture contents were significantly reduced and salt, acidity, fat and protein content were significantly increased during shelf life but no significant difference observed between them at the end of storage. It was obvious that suspended probiotic in cheese couldn , t change the texture properties of cheese but in sensory properties the samples containing capsules get lower scores than control cheese. In general, the results indicated that encapsulation with sodum caseinate, whey protein and pectin significantly increase the survival rate of probiotic bacteria. Keywords : Cheese, encapsulation, lactobacillus plantarum PTCC 1896, pectin, sodium caseinate, whey protein