Editorial: Next-generation oleogel and hydrogel systems: advances in structuring, digestion, and nutrient delivery in food matrices

Editorial on the Research Topic Next-generation oleogel and hydrogel systems: advances in structuring, digestion, and nutrient delivery in food matrices Developing healthier foods requires ingredients that provide the technological properties needed in the final product.Oleogels, hydrogels, and their combinations, such as bigels, are promising systems because their composition and structure can be adjusted to modify food texture, protect bioactive compounds, and influence their release during digestion.However, their performance depends on how they behave during processing and when incorporated into complex food matrices.The five articles in this Research Topic address these questions from complementary perspectives, covering gel structuring, food applications, digestive behavior, and nutrient delivery.Two reviews establish the broader design framework.Pandey and Mathur examine how biopolymer assembly, lipid crystallization, and the accessibility of gels to digestive enzymes can influence both food structure and nutrient delivery.Their discussion of emulsion gels and bigels shows why combining aqueous and lipid domains may expand the range of compounds that a single material can carry.Joseph et al. extend this perspective to stimuli-responsive hydrogels, whose networks change in response to conditions such as pH, temperature, or enzymes.They also highlight scattering techniques that can reveal network and interfacial behavior across length scales, information needed to connect a proposed release mechanism to measurable structural changes.The importance of phase architecture becomes especially clear in the review by Shetty et al.Plant-based bigels bring oleogel and hydrogel into the same material, allowing hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds to occupy different environments.The authors discuss how phase continuity, the hydrogel-to-oleogel ratio, network density, and interfacial design may affect protection during gastric transit and release in the intestine.Together, these reviews suggest a useful shift in emphasis: digestive behavior should be studied as a