A barrier coating composition includes a polymer material and a structuring agent dispersed in said polymer material, wherein the structuring agent decreases oxygen or water permeability through the polymer material. The barrier coating composition can be used to coat a core component, which can be oxygen or water sensitive, to form a microencapsulated material. The microencapsulated material can be formed by microencapsulation methods, which include atomization or coacervation methods, including forming an oil emulsion of an oil phase and an aqueous phase, the oil phase including the core component and the aqueous phase including the polymer material, adding the structuring agent to one of the oil phase and the aqueous phase, mixing the oil emulsion to form desired particle sizes of the core component, forming the shell component around the core component to form the microencapsulated material, and extracting the formed microencapsulated material from the oil emulsion.