Dairy Materials as Delivery Tools for Bioactive Components in Dairy Platforms

Milk is composed of a wide variety of molecules with nutritional and multiple biological functionalities. The two main examples of colloidal structures in milk with multiple functions are fat globules and protein assemblies, referred to as casein micelles. Both assemblies are examples of how nature has resolved the task of delivering nutrients. They are often studied as a model of how to create structures in foods with enhanced functionality during consumption and digestion. Proteins and lipid aggregates in milk encode bioactive structures that will become important once digested, and will serve protective roles in the gut, for example, by regulating the immune system, by serving as cell differentiation factors, or by showing symbiotic functions with beneficial microorganisms. The milk components can form supramolecular structures that can be employed for the delivery of additional health benefits. The current knowledge of such structures present in milk, their changes during processing and digestion, and their relationship to biological functions in the gastrointestinal tract are outlined in this chapter. Recent findings in this area have created a paradigm shift in how we process and design new dairy foods aimed at providing additional health benefits to consumers.