Reduced-Salt Emulsion Technologies (Re-SET)

盐摄入量增加与心血管疾病（CVD）和中风有关[1]，这两种疾病都给卫生服务带来了巨大负担，并降低了生活质量。英国心脏基金会估计，英国心血管疾病和中风的医疗费用超过170亿英镑（2006年）。低盐食物和零食可以帮助缓解这种压力，但消费者仍然希望有一个愉快的饮食体验。这就要求食品配方中的盐含量“无形地”减少，与全盐食品的口感和“方便性”相似。已经尝试过减小添加到食物中的盐晶体的尺寸（<25微米），但不幸的是提供了不希望的咸味“爆裂”。基于壳技术的低盐健康食品和零食可以克服这一点，因为这些壳稳定的乳液构建体可以用于调节盐释放，从而调节盐感知/“咸味”[2]。由于严重的加工和稳定性问题，没有（半干）食品;（a）加工问题：由于壳界面的易碎性质，这种结构难以加工。2需要进一步的创新以能够将这些精细的结构应用到食品表面上。(b)稳定性问题：含有盐的乳液会受到大的渗透压和化学势差的影响，这往往会破坏这些结构。将这些含盐乳剂添加到干燥食品中/上会加速不稳定过程。伯明翰大学的研究证据表明，甘油三酯壳的稳定渗透分离是可能的[2]，这些壳可以在不同的温度和速率下熔化，从而在低得多的盐浓度下提供潜在的调节盐感知。该项目将提供配方设计规则和加工路线，以生产壳稳定的油包水乳液，用于开发低盐健康休闲食品。拟议的项目方案经过精心设计，旨在快速识别用于原型制造的潜在壳稳定破乳“技术”，扩大生产这些技术的工艺规模，并最终对制造的原型进行感官评估，确定它们是否可以提供可接受的低盐休闲食品产品。项目团队提供了一种独特的协同产品，将促进不同的思维，通过对表面化学的理解、工艺和配方工程的进步、测量和表征，为创新铺平道路。拟议的研究计划涉及伯明翰大学（UoB）和百事可乐公司。从这次合作中开发的技术和获得的理解将使许多新的应用和食品进入市场，该项目的知识产权也有望在商业上创新。[1]Strazzullo et al. BMJ 2009; 339：b4567;[2] Frasch-Melnik et al.，2010. J Food Eng. 98：437.

Increased salt intake has been linked to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and stroke [1], with both illnesses placing ahuge burden on health services and lowering life quality. The British Heart Foundation estimated that UK health care costsfor both CVD and stokes to be >£17bn (2006). Low salt foods and snacks can help ease this strain, however consumersstill expect a pleasurable eating experience. This requires formulation of food products of "invisibly" reduced salt, similar intaste and "convenience" to their full-salt counterparts. Reducing the size of salt crystals (<25 microns) added to food hasbeen attempted but unfortunately provides an unwanted saltiness "burst". Reduced-salt healthy foods and snacks based onshell technologies could overcome this as these shell-stabilised emulsion constructs can be used to modulate salt releaseand thus salt perception/"saltiness" [2].Nonetheless uses of such structuring technologies in dry (semi-dry) foods are absent due to serious processing andstability issues; (a) Processing issues: due to the fragile nature of shell interfaces, such structures are difficult to process.Further innovation is required to be able to apply these delicate structures onto the food surface. (b) Stability issues:emulsions containing salt are subject to large osmotic pressure and chemical potential differences which tend to destabilisethese structures. Adding these salt-containing emulsions into/onto dry foods accelerates the destabilisation process.Evidence from research at the University of Birmingham suggests that stable osmotic separation with triglyceride shells ispossible [2] and these shells can be constructed to melt at different temperatures and rates, thus giving potential tomodulate salt perception at much lower salt concentrations. This project will deliver both the formulation design rules andprocessing routes in order to manufacture shell-stabilised water-in-oil emulsions for the development of salt-reducedhealthy snack foods. The proposed project programme is carefully designed to quickly recognise potential shell-stabilisedemulsion "technologies" for use in prototype manufacture, to scale-up the processes to produce these and finally tosensorially evaluate the manufactured prototypes and establish whether they can deliver acceptable salt-reduced snackfood products.The project team provides a unique and synergistic offering which will catalyse different thinking, approaches and pavethe way for innovation, through understanding of surface chemistries, advances in process and formulation engineering,measurement and characterisation. The proposed research program involves the University of Birmingham (UoB) andPepsiCo. The technology developed and understanding gained from this collaboration will enable many new applicationsand foods to reach the market, with IPR from this project also expected to be commercially innovative.[1] Strazzullo et al. BMJ 2009; 339:b4567;[2] Frasch-Melnik et al., 2010. J Food Eng. 98: 437.