The breakdown of food structures in the GI tract and subsequent availability of food constituents has a significant effect on food sensory and nutritional quality. Advances in understanding of food breakdown, digestion and transport enable more successful design of health-promoting foods. Designing functional foods: Measuring and controlling food structure breakdown and nutrient absorption reviews progress in these areas. Introductory chapters outline the mouth, digestive system and the gut microflora. Parts 2 and 3 then cover advances in research methods to assess the effects of GI processes on foods and the mechanisms of digestion of the major food constituents. Part 4 explores the implications of digestion processes for the design of health-promoting foods.
Key Features: Reviews digestion and absorption of food components including oral physiology and gut microbial ecology. Evaluates advances in methods to study food sensory perception assessing criteria such as simulation of flavour released from foods. Investigates the implications for the design of functional foods including optimising the flavour of low-fat foods and controlling the release of glucose.
Contents: Part 1 Digestion and adsorption of food components: Oral physiology, mastication and food perception; Gut microbial ecology; Digestion and absorption of lipids; Physicochemical basis of the digestion and absorption of triacylglycerol; Non-starch polysaccharides in the gastrointestinal tract; Digestion and absorption of proteins and peptides; Digestion and absorption of lipophilic food micronutrients (vitamins A, E, D and K, carotenoids and phytosterols); Bioavailability and metabolism of phenolic compounds and glucosinolates; Developing effective probiotic products: bioavailability and other factors. Part 2 Advances in research methods to study food sensory perception, digestion and adsorption: Measuring the oral behaviour of foods; Measurement and simulation of flavour release from foods; Improving in vitro simulation of the stomach and intestines; The use of Caco-2 cells in defining nutrient bioavailability: application to iron bioavailabilty of foods; Techniques for assessing the functional response to food of the stomach and small and large intestine; Advances in the use of animal models for analysing intestinal cancers and protective effects of dietary components; Using stable isotopes to determine mineral bioavailability of functional foods. Part 3 Implications: Optimising the flavour of low-fat foods; Design of foods for the optimal delivery of basic tastes; Oral processing and perception of food emulsions: relevance for fat reduction in food; Controlling lipid bioavailability using emulsion-based delivery systems; Controlling the delivery of glucose in foods; Protein micro/nano particles for controlled nutraceutical delivery in functional foods; Self-assembling structures in the gastrointestinal tract; Designing foods to induce satiation: a flavour perspective; Health food product composition, structure and bioavailability; Coenzyme Q10: functional benefits, dietary uptake and delivery mechanisms.
David Julian McClements and Eric Andrew Decker are Professors in the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts. They are widely respected for their research into food biopolymers, colloids, emulsions, structured delivery systems, bioavailability, and lipid oxidation.
