Delivery systems with sustained release of antimicrobials have been proposed to improve long-term effectiveness of antimicrobials in foods. In this work, we studied the effect of Tween 20 and glycerol in spray-drying formulations on resultant microstructures of zein capsules and release profiles of encapsulated nisin. Tween 20 and glycerol changed capsules from a continuous matrix to shell-type structures. All samples showed complete release of nisin in 30 min at pH 2.0. Capsules with a higher amount of Tween 20 showed more complete release of nisin at pH 8.0, in contrast to no apparent impact by glycerol. Addition of 0.05% Tween 20 or glycerol in the feed both reduced the burst release of nisin at pH 6.0, but no conclusive trends were observed for the impact of their usage levels. Our work showed that an appropriate formulation is needed to obtain desirable delivery systems of antimicrobials such as nisin. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.