fine tuning structure formation with oil droplets in gel matrices using competing destabilizing mechanisms.

众所周知，更好地了解食品基质中的结构等级对食品的保质期和消费者对食品的接受程度具有重要意义。然而，直到最近，人们才发现更好的食品结构设计对于制定更健康的产品，优化风味释放，更重要的是，在消化分解过程中定制生物功能也很重要。这些发现代表了我们处理产品开发方式的范式转变，并清楚地指出了导出结构设计原则的必要性。我们建议通过观察生物聚合物网络中含有脂肪球的模型食物平台中发生的相互作用，对食物基质结构的形成进行深入研究。事实上，虽然我们知道很多关于如何设计稳定的油滴，或者如何控制模型凝胶中含有蛋白质或多糖的结构的形成，但对混合基质中发生的相互作用的了解却少得多，这些相互作用正在经历相互竞争的不稳定反应——这通常是制造食品的情况。在水包油乳液中，液滴的物理化学性质和加工行为受界面上吸附成分的影响。未吸附的聚合物也将决定结构的特性。例如，可溶相中的非相互作用生物聚合物可能通过耗尽机制导致相分离；或者，生物聚合物可以吸附在油滴之间的界面和桥，使油滴成为蛋白质网络的组成部分。虽然系统在孤立情况下已被很好地表征，但对同时发生多种反应时发生的变化动力学的了解要少得多。凝胶过程中相分离的微调可以控制团簇的形成和不同填充凝胶的产生。

It is well established that a better understanding of the structural hierarchies present in food matrices is of great significance in terms of shelf life and consumer's acceptability of food products. However, only recently, it has become evident that better design of food structures is also important to formulate healthier products, optimize flavour release, and more importantly, tailor biological functionality during digestive breakdown. These findings represent a paradigm shift in the way we approach product development and clearly point out the necessity for deriving principles of structure design. We are proposing an in depth study of the formation of structure in food matrices, by looking at the interactions occurring in model food platforms, containing fat globules in biopolymers' networks. Indeed, while we know a great deal on how to design stable oil droplets, or how to control the formation of structure in model gels containing proteins or polysaccharides in isolation, much less is understood of the interactions occurring in mixed matrices undergoing competing destabilizing reactions - and this is usually the case in making food products. In oil-in-water emulsions, the physico-chemical properties and the processing behaviour of the droplets are ruled by the components adsorbed at the interface. The unadsorbed polymers will also determine characteristics of the structure. For example, a non-interacting biopolymer in the soluble phase may cause phase separation by a depletion mechanism; alternatively, biopolymers may adsorb at the interface and bridge between oil droplets, making the droplets integral part of the protein network. While systems have been well characterized in isolation, much less is understood on the dynamics of change occurring when multiple reactions happen at once. Fine-tuning of phase separation during gelation may control the formation of clusters and the creation of differently filled gels.