Modification of the interfacial structure of droplet-stabilised emulsions during in vitro dynamic gastric digestion: Impact on in vitro intestinal lipid digestion

The in-vitro gastrointestinal digestion behaviour of an oil-in-water emulsion with an interface consisting of nano-sized droplets coated with caseinate particles, referred to as a droplet-stabilised emulsion (DSE), was explored using the human gastric simulator and pH-stat models. A caseinate-particle-stabilised emulsion (PSE) was used as a control, with a similar droplet size distribution and the same composition as the DSE. The nanodroplet-stabilised interface of the DSE was preserved during the first 180 min of gastric digestion. During 240 min, the droplet sizes of the DSE and the PSE increased from 22.71 ± 1.14 to 63.34 ± 6.57 μm and from 17.98 ± 1.16 to 85.11 ± 9.35 μm respectively. The small droplet size of the DSE that was released from the gastric phase contributed to slightly higher total free fatty acid (FFA) release (56.18 ± 3.55%) than that from the PSE (49.4 ± 2.67%). The FFA release rate of the DSE (1.21 % min^-1) was greater than that of the PSE (1.06 % min^-1) during the first 30 min of small intestinal digestion; similar FFA release rates (0.5 µmol s^-1 m^-2 × 10^-4) were obtained for both emulsions beyond 30 min of digestion. This study provides new information on lipid digestion using a novel interfacial layer that was stabilised with nanodroplets.