A novel approach that may impact on satiety, whilst meeting the demands of consumers, is the use of hydrocolloids that respond to the environment (acidic) conditions inside the human stomach by self-structuring. This thesis seeks to investigate the in vitro acid-induced gelation (“structuring”) of the mixed biopolymer systems; low-acyl and high-acyl gellan gum, and low-acyl gellan fluid gels.
To explore this concept, a variety of acid structures were obtained, which were characterised by texture analysis, rheology and dynamic scanning calorimetry. The gel structures were found to rely on the pH, hydrocolloid concentration, percentage weight of each hydrocolloid used and the processing conditions used during their production.
It is suggested that the use of gel alone is more than capable of providing prolonged satiety but leads to unpleasant sensations for the consumer if there is no delivery of energy to the body to compliment the sensation of satiety. Materials should be included that will modulate the energy delivery and slowly release calories over time. This research shows that the addition of co-solutes such as sugar and the measurement of their subsequent release from hydrocolloid gels could provide a first step to tackling these issues
