Abstract: In order to overcome the shortcoming of clove essential oil (CEO) about volatile and difficult to dissolve in water in the application of food preservation, microcapsules of CEO were prepared through complex coacervation and the microencapsulation technique was optimized by Box-Behnken center combination test and response surface methodology. Then the CEO microcapsules were applied to the preservation of pork under ice-temperature. Results showed that, the model was of great difference (p<0.0001), and the established regression equation for embedding rate of CEO microcapsules had an excellent goodness of fit. The highest embedding rate of microcapsules could reach 84.20% when the concentration of CaCl₂ was 12 g/L, the core-wall ratio was 7:1 (m/m), the ratio of composite wall material (sodium alginate to chitosan) was 0.8:1 (m/m), the embedding time was 47 min.And the relative error was less than 5% compared with the predicted embedding rate. The CEO microcapsules prepared under the optimum conditions were used to keep the chilled pork fresh. The control group, hollow microcapsules group and CEO microcapsules group of pork samples could be preserved for 9, 21 and 27 days respectively under ice-temperature. It showed that CEO microcapsules could prolong the storage period of pork significantly under ice-temperature (p<0.05).