Edible biopolymers are routinely used in the encapsulation and controlled release of bioactive ingredients (e.g. medicines, nutrients, flavours). Common encapsulants are in their glassy states. The encapsulation efficiency is governed by the molecular mobility (diffusion) through the biopolymer matrices, which is mediated by the naturally occurring disorder related nano-scale local free volume. Thus, an understanding of the relationship between molecular mobility and free volume is fundamental to a rational design of encapsulants rather than the current trial and error approach. This work proposes to combine neutron scattering to measure molecular mobility and recently developed Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) for direct measurement of ¿free volume¿ holes to progress towards the design of tailor made encapsulants for a specific bio-ingredient.