The simulated in vitro infant gastrointestinal digestion of droplets covered with milk fat globule membrane polar lipids concentrate

Milk fat globule membrane polar lipids (MPL) are increasingly used as the surface-active components for emulsions in many infant food products. However, the precise effect of the emulsifier MPL on the digestion of lipids during gastrointestinal digestion has not been elucidated. This study investigated the lipid digestion of droplets covered with MPL with different sizes in a simulated in vitro infant gastrointestinal digestion assay. The well-used surface-active component casein was used as a control. Four types of emulsions were formulated: small and large droplets covered with MPL concentrate (MPL-S and MPL-L, with volumetric means of 0.35 ± 0.01 and 4.04 ± 0.01 μm, respectively), and small and large droplets covered with casein (CN-S and CN-L, with volumetric means of 0.44 ± 0.01 and 4.09 ± 0.03 μm, respectively). The emulsions were subjected to in vitro gastrointestinal digestion using a semidynamic model mimicking infant digestion. Through the determination of particle size evolution, zeta-potential, and microstructure of emulsions, the lipid droplets covered with MPL were found to be more stable than that of the CN-S and CN-L during gastrointestinal digestion. Moreover, although CN-S and CN-L showed a higher initial lipolysis rate at the beginning of gastric digestion, droplets covered by MPL exhibited a significantly higher amount of free fatty acid release during later digestion. The amount of free fatty acid release of the emulsions in both gastric and intestinal digestion could be generally classified as MPL-S ≥ MPL-L > CN-S > CN-L. Our study highlights the crucial role of MPL in the efficient digestion of emulsions and brings new insight for the design of infant food products.