Interactions of Macromolecules: β-Lactoglobulin Interaction With Pectins

One of the major challenges for food research is to understand how molecules interact with each other to give food its structure and resulting texture. We wish to know how different food macromolecules, proteins and polysaccharides, interact. Clearly the interactions are not extensive because solid foods that result provide excellent examples of the fast developing field of soft matter (if the interactions were extensive a rigid solid would result, which would likely be unpalatable and indigestible). As a model system we have chosen to work with two macromolecules that are not found together in basic foods, but are likely to mix together in a manufacturing process. They are β-lactoglobulin, the most abundant whey protein and pectins which originate from plant cell walls (dietary fibres) and are available in a range of sizes and charges. A knowledge of how they interact will help us understand texture and other properties of foods. This should lead to improvements in food manufacture and possibly novel foods. Remembering we eat a mixed diet, this knowledge is relevant to food digestion. Further, such complexes can be used to deliver bioactive compounds and nutrients such as polyphenolics, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, minerals to targeted regions of the human gut.