Impact of Food Structure on Micronutrient Bioavailability in Human

The nutritional quality of foods strongly depends on the structure / texture of foods, because of the impact on food disintegration, and then on digestion process and nutrient utilization by the human body. However, this relationship between food structure and nutrient bioavailability is still widely unknown. MicroNut project aims at demonstrating and evaluating in humans the impact of structure / texture changes on micronutrient bioavailability. In order to do this, four complex food matrices, with constant composition but different structures / textures, and as close as possible to real foods have been designed and are evaluated in the present study. A mixture of egg and plant proteins is the basis of these lipoprotein matrices in which four micronutrients will be followed up : two lipophilic (vitamin D and lutein) and 2 hydrophilic (vitamins B9 and B12).