The benefits of various functional foods are often negated by stomach digestion and poor targeting to the lower gastrointestinal tract. Layer-by-Layer assembled protein-tannic acid (TA) films are suggested as a prospective material for microencapsulation of food-derived bioactive compounds. Bovine serum albumin (BSA)-TA and pepsin-TA films demonstrate linear growth of 2.8 +/- 0.1 and 4.2 +/- 0.1 nm per bi-layer, correspondingly, as shown by ellipsometry. Both multilayer films are stable in simulated gastric fluid but degrade in simulated intestinal fluid. Their corresponding degradation constants are 0.026 +/- 0.006 and 0.347 +/- 0.005 nm(-1) min(-1). Milk proteins possessing enhanced adhesion to human intestinal surface, Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and beta-Lactoglobulin (BLG), are explored to tailor targeting function to BSA-TA multilayer film. BLG does not adsorb onto the multilayer while IgG is successfully incorporated. Microcapsules prepared from the multilayer demonstrate 2.7 and 6.3 times higher adhesion to Caco-2 cells when IgG is introduced as an intermediate and the terminal layer, correspondingly. This developed material has a great potential for oral delivery of numerous active food-derived ingredients. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.