Structuring food to control its disintegration in the gastrointestinal tract and optimize nutrient bioavailability

Didier Dupont (1) , Steven Le Feunteun (1) , Sebastien Marze (2) , Isabelle Souchon (3)

1 STLO - Science et Technologie du Lait et de l'Oeuf
2 BIA - Unité de recherche sur les Biopolymères, Interactions Assemblages
3 GMPA - Génie et Microbiologie des Procédés Alimentaires

Unravelling the fate of food in the gastrointestinal tract is essential to better understand the health effects of food and fight against diet-related pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases and type-2 diabetes, and enable the design of food of high nutritional and sensory qualities to provide humans with a healthy diet. Research to date has mostly considered foods according to their composition. However, the role of the food matrix, i.e. the microstructure-level organization of nutrients and their interactions, in the digestive process was recently demonstrated. This paper summarizes the work done by different groups at the INRA to understand and model food digestion. Integration of the knowledge acquired will serve the development of a reverse engineering approach to design new foods purpose- adapted to meeting the nutritional needs of specific populations like infants or the elderly.

Mots clés: santé; nutrient; numerical models

Mots clés: digestion; bioaccessibilité; nutriment; matrice alimentaire; allégations nutritionnelles et de santé; reverse engineering; modèle

Domaines: Alimentation et Nutrition; Ingénierie des aliments

Didier Dupont, Steven Le Feunteun, Sebastien Marze, Isabelle Souchon. Structuring food to control its disintegration in the gastrointestinal tract and optimize nutrient bioavailability. Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies / Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies , 2018, 46, pp.83-90. ⟨10.1016/j.ifset.2017.10.005⟩. ⟨hal-01893933⟩