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Impact of the Dairy Matrix Structure on Milk Protein Digestion Kinetics: Mechanistic Modelling Based on Mini-pig In Vivo Data

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Abstract

Beyond the individual content in nutrients, it is now established that the matrix structure is also to consider when evaluating the nutritional properties and possible health effects of a food material. The objective of this study was to gain knowledge on the effect of the structure of dairy products on the digestion of milk proteins as inferred from a mathematical modelling of mini-pig in vivo data. Six dairy matrices of the same composition but differing by their physicochemical and structural properties were investigated. They were manufactured using technological processes commonly used in the industry (heat treatment, rennet gelation, acid gelation and mixing). The experimental results cover a 7-h postprandial period and consist of plasmatic amino acid concentrations as well as dry matter contents and chromium concentrations (a marker of the liquid phase of the meal) of samples collected at the stomach exit. The model developed not only accounts for the main digestive events but also for phenomena that can occur within the stomach (milk clotting and aggregate syneresis). It provides a good fitting of all the experimental data and allows estimating parameter values that can be explained by considering the properties of the matrices investigated. The model has also been used to estimate quantities that cannot be observed experimentally (stomach volumes, endogenous secretions, gastric emptying half-time, etc.) in order to recover a better picture of all the results and validate the model predictions against the literature. It even appears that our simulations of gastric emptying and aminoacidemia superimpose very well with previously published data obtained using similar matrices and the same mini-pig species. This study shows that the great differences in the kinetics of amino acid absorption that were observed experimentally can be fully understood by considering the behaviour of the dairy matrices within the stomach. It therefore offers interesting perspectives for the integration of food structure parameters, and more particularly for dairy products, in the comprehensive view of the nutritional quality of food products.

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Acknowledgments

Florence Barbé PhD grant is funded by the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France. This study was also supported by the Food and Agriculture COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action FA1005 “Improving Health Properties of Food by Sharing Our Knowledge on the Digestive Process (INFOGEST)”, http://www.cost.esf.org/domains_actions/fa/Actions/FA1005.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA UMR 0782, Génie et Microbiologie des Procédés Alimentaires, 78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France

    Steven Le Feunteun

  2. AgroParisTech UMR 0782, Génie et Microbiologie des Procédés Alimentaires, 78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France

    Steven Le Feunteun

  3. INRA UMR 1253, Science et Technologie du Lait et de l’œuf, 35000, Rennes, France

    Florence Barbé, Olivia Ménard, Yann Le Gouar & Didier Dupont

  4. Agrocampus Ouest UMR 1253, Science et Technologie du Lait et de l’œuf, 35000, Rennes, France

    Florence Barbé, Olivia Ménard, Yann Le Gouar & Didier Dupont

  5. Univ. Paris Sud-CNRS Supélec UMR 8506, Laboratoire des Signaux et Systèmes, 91192, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Florence Barbé

  6. INRA-UdA UMR 1019, Unité de Nutrition Humaine, 63122, St Genès Champanelle, France

    Didier Rémond

  7. INRA UR 314, Mathématiques et Informatique Appliquées, 78352, Jouy-en-Josas, France

    Béatrice Laroche

Authors
  1. Steven Le Feunteun
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  2. Florence Barbé
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  3. Didier Rémond
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  4. Olivia Ménard
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  5. Yann Le Gouar
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  7. Béatrice Laroche
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Correspondence to Béatrice Laroche.

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Steven Le Feunteun and Florence Barbé have equally contributed to this article and should therefore be considered as joint first authors.

Appendix: Volume Modelling in Compartment 1

Appendix: Volume Modelling in Compartment 1

In order to account for syneresis of the gel aggregates, at each time, the compartment volume V 1 is split into the volume of aggregates and associated water, V aggr, and the volume of water-soluble components, V whey. These two volumes are emptied with two different time constants, respectively k 12aggr and k 12whey. V aggr is related to the protein aggregate mass through \( {V_{aggr }}={m_{caswpd1 }}\times \alpha \), so that \( {V_{whey }}={V_1}-{V_{aggr }}={V_1}-{m_{caswpd1 }}\times \alpha \). The transit flux Φ12 from compartments 1–2 for gels is thus expressed as

$$ {\varPhi_{12 }}={k_{12whey }}\times \left( {{V_1}-{m_{caswpd1 }}\times \alpha } \right)+{k_{12aggr }}\times {m_{caswpd1 }}\times \alpha $$

which corresponds to Eq. 2b in the main text.

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Le Feunteun, S., Barbé, F., Rémond, D. et al. Impact of the Dairy Matrix Structure on Milk Protein Digestion Kinetics: Mechanistic Modelling Based on Mini-pig In Vivo Data. Food Bioprocess Technol 7, 1099–1113 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-013-1116-6

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