Food is a complex combination of chemically diverse structures, influenced by composition andprocessing. The nutritional quality of food cannot be solely based on individual contents in nutrientsas food structure will strongly modulate the bioaccessibility of nutrients upon digestion. In previousstudies, the most common approach for measuring the extent of proteolysis and nutrient uptake wasto compare the initial macroscopic features of ingested food to final concentrations in thebloodstream. However, there is limited literature to the support underlying mechanisms of thedigestion of food in the stomach and enzyme diffusion in solid food substrates. In the present work,the influence of casein protein gel microstructure on enzymatic digestion was investigated for thefuture development of personalised foods. Casein gels with an identical composition, but differing bythe coagulation mode, were characterized and submitted to simulated gastric digestion. The changesin gel structure over time were studied using confocal microscopy and small angle x-ray scattering(SAXS). The molecular interactions that occur as a gel network is formed, and subsequently brokendown under digestive conditions will be discussed
