Plant Particle based Hybrid Bicontinuous Oleogels

Objetivo

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) continue to be the major cause of death in the EU, it accounts for over 1.8 million deaths and estimated economic burden of €210 billion a year to EU. One main dietary risk factor long associated with CVDs is the consumption of hardstock fats. Substitution of saturated fats by unsaturated fats is not always possible since it brings major technological challenges such as products that leak oil and have overall poor quality. To overcome this, a promising strategy is to promote oil gelation to form a type of soft condensed matter termed ‘oleogel’. Despite major breakthroughs in this field, there is a strong need for: creating oleogels derived from all-natural and economical biomaterials that display excellent rheology, shear stability and temperature-responsiveness, while meeting increasing consumer expectations for “clean” and natural labels and establishing structure-rheology relationships in such systems. This proposal aims to create novel hybrid oleogels using plant derived native cellulose- and starch- colloidal particles via two main soft matter approaches: colloidal glass-gel networks and bicontinuous gel with interpenetrated particle networks. Colloidal classes and gels are two types of colloidal systems, with differing structure and that display solid-like characteristics which we seek to exploit under these schemes. To incorporate temperature responsiveness, we will prepare oil continuous colloidal gel and glass in coexistence with fat crystal network. Such hybrid systems will be prepared by simultaneous addition of plant particles at high volume fraction and fat particles at low volume fraction (plant particles entrapped within the fat network), and gel-gel networks will be made by separate aggregation, first of the plant particles and then of fat particles. Structure, rheology, physical properties and phase behaviour will be investigated to identify formulations and soft matter systems with potential for food oil structuring.