Anwesha Sarkar

Citation

Thesis Title
Behaviour of milk protein-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions in simulated physiological fluids

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Increased consumption of dietary lipids containing trans fats and cholesterols has led to escalating rates of negative health impacts, such as obesity and cardiovascular diseases. This has raised challenges to design food structures in order to manipulate lipid digestion. To develop specific strategies that could control lipid bioavailability, Ms. Sarkar highlighted the need to gain mechanistic insights about the gastrointestinal digestion of processed foods with a particular reference to emulsified lipids using in vitro digestion models. Since, emulsion represents a good model system for a wide range of foods, the behaviour of both anionic and cationic milk protein-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions was investigated in presence of simulated oral and gastrointestinal fluids. The fundamental mechanisms behind colloidal interactions of protein-stabilized interfaces with the physiological variables were established. These findings contribute to the understanding of how the physicochemical and microstructural changes that occur to the emulsified lipids during physiological processing influence lipid digestion. This information may allow the design of novel healthy foods that provide controlled digestion of lipids, tackling the food-related health issues.

Supervisors
Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh
Professor Kelvin Goh
Dr Paul Singh