Use as a food additive of beads consisting of a matrix of a reticulated multivalent cation-containing acid polysaccharide and at least one water soluble and/or volatile liquid or solid active ingredient filling at least partly the voids in the acid polysaccharide. They are prepared by dispersing or emulsifying in an aqueous solution of an acid polysaccharide, a water immiscible material, an emulsifier and, optionally, one or more other water-soluble or -dispersible substances, forming discrete droplets of this system; converting the droplets to water-insoluble gel beads by exposure to multivalent cations, isolating the resulting beads from the suspension, and loading them with at least one active ingredient, typically selected from flavours, fragrances, vitamins and colouring materials. The beads are particularly resistant to harsh food processing conditions, such as baking, retorting, deep frying and extruding.