Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) continue to be the major cause of death in the EU, it accounts for over 1.8 million deaths and estimated economic burden of €210 billion a year to EU. One main dietary risk factor long associated with CVDs is the consumption of hardstock fats. Substitution of saturated fats by unsaturated fats is not always possible since it brings major technological challenges such as products that leak oil and have overall poor quality. To overcome this, a promising strategy is to promote oil gelation to form a type of soft condensed matter termed ‘oleogel’. Despite major breakthroughs in this field, there is a strong need for: creating oleogels derived from all-natural and economical biomaterials that display excellent rheology, shear stability and temperature-responsiveness, while meeting increasing consumer expectations for “clean” and natural labels and establishing structure-rheology relationships in such systems. This proposal aims to create novel hybrid oleogels using plant derived native cellulose- and starch- colloidal particles via two main soft matter approaches: colloidal glass-gel networks and bicontinuous gel with interpenetrated particle networks. Colloidal classes and gels are two types of colloidal systems, with differing structure and that display solid-like characteristics which we seek to exploit under these schemes. To incorporate temperature responsiveness, we will prepare oil continuous colloidal gel and glass in coexistence with fat crystal network. Such hybrid systems will be prepared by simultaneous addition of plant particles at high volume fraction and fat particles at low volume fraction (plant particles entrapped within the fat network), and gel-gel networks will be made by separate aggregation, first of the plant particles and then of fat particles. Structure, rheology, physical properties and phase behaviour will be investigated to identify formulations and soft matter systems with potential for food oil structuring.

This project aims to develop a new consumer acceptable all plant based solutions for stabilisation of edible emulsions, whose design is based on the fundamental understanding of the structure-stabilisation-flow properties of cellulose microfibril (MFC)-containing hybrid systems that are naturally found in plant cells. While there is much empirical knowledge about emulsion rheology and stability, the microscopic physical mechanisms that govern emulsion behaviour are still poorly understood, and in this particular case, for emulsions with a complexity that goes beyond the standard oil/water/surfactant systems. This lack of understanding greatly hampers the rational design of all plant structured emulsion-based products. To bridge this gap, we bring together a team of industrial and academic research groups with different, complementary expertise. By using high energy density processes for efficient deagglomeration of the CMF and proposing a new structuring approach through the continuous phase of the plant based emulsion, we will control emulsion stability. By combining macroscopic rheology and tribology with novel microfluidic tools and imaging techniques, we will establish the relation between the macroscopic flow behaviour and stability of the emulsions and the microscopic structure and interactions, and thereby increase our understanding of flowing emulsions beyond the current empirical models. It will help us to move further and provide a special focus on the mouthfeel of all plant structured emulsions. The prediction of mouthfeel texture attributes from rheology is crucial for the food industry to take a more systematic approach towards product design and optimization in order to meet consumers' preference is for natural, simple and flexible diets and other plant-focused formulations as closely as possible. The results of the project are translatable to other industries where emulsion formulation is required.