Projects - YT (Yitan) Zhai MSc

The worldwide epidemic of obesity necessitates a new, ideally non-invasive approach to reduce food intake. Controlled digestion of oil in the small intestine could trigger a 'brake' on food intake, inducing satiety and consequently decreasing energy ingestion.

The aim of my PhD project is to control oil digestion in the simulated small intestine conditions by encapsulating it with Pickering emulsion. As Pickering emulsions exhibit better physical and coalescence stability than emulsions stabilized by surfactants. Moreover, the colloidal particles anchored at the oil-water interface typically possess high desorption energy, making it hard for bio-surfactants to displace them from the droplet surface, thus preventing the destabilization of emulsion droplets. Literature has proved that the particle characteristics (e.g., shape, charge, rigidity, digestibility, size, etc.) and the properties of both the continuous and the dispersed phases can be used to modulate the digestion of Pickering emulsions. Additionally, some papers have also shown that Pickering emulsions were more effective in retarding lipid digestion when compared with protein-stabilized emulsions in their simulated conditions.

The project starts with understanding the destabilization mechanism of Pickering emulsions under digestive conditions using model systems. Subsequently, the particles used for building Pickering emulsion will be changed to food ingredients. Finally, food-grade Pickering emulsions with desired digestive fate will be obtained based on the destabilization mechanism.