edible Pickering Emulsion Technology (ePET)

肥胖正在给卫生服务造成越来越大的负担，并降低生活质量；英国国民健康保险机构因肥胖而承担的直接成本为42亿英镑（间接成本为160亿英镑），Foresight预测，到2050年，这一数字将增加一倍以上（间接成本将达到500亿英镑）。健康食品可以帮助缓解这种压力，但消费者仍然希望这些食品能提供愉快的饮食体验。这就要求食品的配方“无形地”减少脂肪，在味道和“方便”上与全脂食品相同。基于双重乳剂的低脂健康食品可以做到这一点。然而，由于需要突破性创新的技术问题，双乳技术在食品中的应用尚不存在。本项目提出了设计、开发和制造新型、多功能、高价值、酸洗稳定的双乳剂的能力，用于开发专门针对减脂而配制的食品。在概念层面上，双重乳剂为健康食品的发展提供了巨大的潜力；也就是说，因为它们“不被察觉”地减少了食物中的脂肪，而且“无形地”携带和传递营养和生物活性，而不影响味道。虽然“简单”乳剂在许多商业领域（包括食品）已经建立了完善的体系，但科学和技术知识尚不允许商业生产双重乳剂。为了实现这一目标，需要创新来克服目前与双乳液相关的处理和稳定性问题；(a)加工问题：双乳是通过两步乳化工艺生产的。然而，第二步可能会“破坏”初级结构，导致乳剂不一致，从而导致容易不稳定的双重结构（奥斯特瓦尔德成熟）。(b)稳定性问题：双乳液由至少两种低分子量表面活性剂稳定。它们倾向于在两个相反弯曲的界面之间迁移，最终导致双重结构的崩溃。这种不稳定过程被双重结构的两水相之间的拉普拉斯压力和化学势差加速。这个合作研发项目将解决这些重要的技术挑战；即通过一系列工艺持续生产双乳剂的能力，提供具有长期稳定性的双乳剂的能力，以及在显著降低破乳剂水平的情况下制定这些复杂的微观结构的能力。来自伯明翰大学的证据表明，目前与双乳液相关的处理和稳定性问题都可以通过使用皮克林颗粒来解决。然而，可用作皮克林粒子的可食用结构目前还不可用。该项目将提供配方设计规则和加工路线，以生产稳定的可食用皮克林颗粒。拟议的项目计划经过精心设计，以快速识别用于原型制造的潜在可食用皮克林颗粒和可食用皮克林双乳“技术”，扩大生产这些产品的工艺，并最终对制造的原型进行感官评估，并确定它们是否可以提供可接受的减脂食品。通过对表面化学的理解，在工艺工程、测量和表征方面的进步，项目团队提供了独特的协同产品，将催化不同的思维、方法并为创新铺平道路。拟议的研究项目涉及伯明翰大学（UoB）、嘉吉和联合利华。此次合作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。

Obesity is placing an increasing burden on health services as well as lowering life quality; the direct cost of obesity to NHSis £4.2bn (£16bn indirect costs), forecasted by Foresight to more than double (and to reach £50bn indirect costs) by 2050.Healthy foods can help ease this strain, however consumers still expect these to provide a pleasurable eating experience.This requires formulation of food products of "invisibly" reduced fat, identical in taste and "convenience" to their full-fatcounterparts. Reduced-fat healthy foods based on double emulsions could achieve just that. Nonetheless uses of doubleemulsion technology in foods are absent due to technological issues in need of break-through innovation. This projectproposes the design, development and ability to manufacture novel, multifunctional, high value, Pickering-stabilised doubleemulsions for the development of foods specifically formulated with reference to fat reduction.At a conceptual level, double emulsions offer enormous potential in the development of healthy foods; namely becausethey impart an "unperceived" fat reduction in foods but also by "invisibly" carrying and delivering nutrients and bioactiveswithout compromising on taste. Although "simple" emulsions are well-established systems in many commercial areas(including foods), science and technological knowledge are not yet available to allow double emulsions to be commerciallyproduced. To achieve this, innovation is needed to overcome processing and stability issues currently associated withdouble emulsions; (a) Processing issues: double emulsions are produced by a 2-step emulsification process. However the2nd step can "damage" the primary structure resulting in inconsistent emulsions, and thus double structures that are proneto destabilisation (Ostwald ripening). (b) Stability issues: double emulsions are stabilised by at least two low molecularweight surfactants. These tend to migrate between the two oppositely curved interfaces, eventually leading to the collapseof the double structure. This destabilisation process is accelerated by Laplace pressure and chemical potential differencesbetween the two aqueous phases of the double structure. This collaborative R&D project will address these importanttechnological challenges; namely the ability to produce double emulsions consistently through a range of processes, todeliver double emulsions with long-term stability and to formulate these complex microstructures with significantly reducedemulsifier levels. Evidence from the University of Birmingham suggests that both the processing and stability issuescurrently associated with double emulsions can be potentially addressed by the use of Pickering particles. However ediblestructures that can be used as Pickering particles are currently unavailable. This project will deliver both the formulationdesign rules and processing routes in order to manufacture stable edible Pickering particles. The proposed projectprogramme is carefully designed to quickly recognise potential edible Pickering particles and edible Pickering doubleemulsions "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 fat-reduced foodproducts.The project team provides a unique and synergistic offering which will catalyse different thinking, approaches and pave theway for innovation, through understanding of surface chemistries, advances in process engineering, measurement andcharacterisation. The proposed research program involves the University of Birmingham (UoB), Cargill and Unilever. The technology developed and understanding gained from this collaboration will enable many new applications and foods toreach the market, with IPR from this project also expected to be commercially innovative.