The functional food market has been rapidly growing for the past years but the development of new products is still imperative due to the increasing demand for healthy, high quality foods associated to changes in consumers’ life-style. Incorporation of probiotics into cereal-based products is therefore desirable since it can combine the healthy formulation of a cereal mixture, the added value of prebiotic ingredients, and the beneficial effects of the probiotic bacteria. The aim of this study was to evaluate the maintenance of viability of encapsulated probiotics in a cereal bar after food processing and during storage. A cereal mixture was used to prepare cereal bars using a high-shear granulator. The probiotic strain Lactobacillus casei 01 was encapsulated in Ca-alginate beads and added to the cereal bar to a final concentration of 109 CFU.g-1 of product, followed by honey topping. The cereal bar was dried in an oven at 80 °C, 120 °C and 160 °C for 10 minutes. Viability above 106 CFU.g-1 was found at 80 and 120 °C, the latter with 0.81 ±0.33 log loss. Despite some evidence of stickiness, quantitative evaluation showed no significant changes (p > 0.05) for water activity, moisture content and texture of the cereal bars dried at 120 °C. Probiotic viability on the cereal bars by 14 days of storage at 4 °C and 20 °C was 7.50 ±0.55 and 6.72 ±0.27 log CFU.g-1, respectively. Two other probiotic strains were studied under the same aforementioned conditions. This study indicated that it is feasible to incorporate probiotic bacteria into a cereal bar product, but further studies are required to determine the product shelf-life, viability during gastrointestinal passage and to assure probiotic functionality.