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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1507093
This article is part of the Research Topic Understanding Milk Components and Their Impact on Digestion and Health View all articles

Investigation of the gastric digestion behavior of commercial infant formulae using an in vitro dynamic infant digestion model

Provisionally accepted
Faith Bernadette Descallar Faith Bernadette Descallar 1Debashree Roy Debashree Roy 1Xin Wang Xin Wang 1Peter Zhu Peter Zhu 1Aiqian Ye Aiqian Ye 1Yichao Liang Yichao Liang 2Shikha Pundir Shikha Pundir 2Harjinder Singh Harjinder Singh 1Alejandra Acevedo-Fani Alejandra Acevedo-Fani 1*
  • 1 Riddet Institute, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
  • 2 Fonterra Research and Development Centre, Palmerston North, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The gastric digestion behavior of different commercial Stage 1 infant formulae (for 0-6 months) with different formulation backgrounds was investigated using an in vitro dynamic infant human gastric simulator (iHGS). The microstructural arrangements of the protein and lipid, colloidal stability and protein hydrolysis during digestion were elucidated. During gastric digestion, casein-dominant formulations showed a higher extent of aggregation due to their high proportion of casein micelles that underwent coagulation upon acidification and via the action of pepsin. The extensive protein coagulation/curd formation in casein-dominant infant formulae slowed the rate of protein hydrolysis and resulted in the retention of caseins in the iHGS for longer times. Confocal micrographs showed that oil droplets were entrapped in the curd particles of casein-dominant infant formulae, which consequently slowed the gastric emptying of lipids. Conversely, whey-dominant formulations showed a lower degree of protein aggregation that resulted in faster protein hydrolysis and rapid protein and lipid emptying from the iHGS. It was also revealed that whey-dominant infant formulae in the presence of biopolymers increased the viscosity of gastric chyme and induced the flocculation of oil droplets. This altered the rate of protein hydrolysis and emptying of lipids. Correlation analyses depicted the overall kinetics of gastric emptying of macronutrients during digestion and comprised two stages: (i) driven by the continuous stomach emptying and (ii) influenced by aggregation and coalescence indices. The present study highlights the similarities and differences in the digestion behaviors of commercial infant formulae based on important ingredients such as types of proteins and biopolymers, regardless of the formulation or processing histories.

    Keywords: Infant Formula, In vitro dynamic digestion, Milk Proteins, Biopolymers, Gastric Emptying

    Received: 07 Oct 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Descallar, Roy, Wang, Zhu, Ye, Liang, Pundir, Singh and Acevedo-Fani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alejandra Acevedo-Fani, Riddet Institute, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.