Food matrix impact on macronutrients nutritional properties Sylvie L. Turgeon * , Laurie-Eve Rioux STELA Dairy Research Group, Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods (INAF), 2425, rue de l’Agriculture, Pavillon Paul-Comtois, Laval University, Quebec, Canada G1V 0A6 article info Article history: Received 28 December 2010 Accepted 22 February 2011 Keywords: Food matrix Nutritional properties Digestion Dairy products Satiety Processing abstract The food industry is aware of the consumer’s desire to purchase delicious, convenient and nutritious foods. Rapid development of functional foods has induced the food industry to evaluate and revise the composition of their processed foods as well as their processing conditions and methods to improve nutritional and health effects. The addition of new bioactive compounds to a food requires that the bioactive agent is in the active form by the time it reaches the gastrointestinal tract, where it is assimilated. However, the question is whether or not the processes and the composition of traditional foods are carefully balanced to ensure the optimal nutritional properties. This paper aims to review the concepts and facts that are the basis of the new area of research regarding the role of food structure on the nutritional properties of conventional and functional foods. Several original approaches have emerged, bringing together scientists from fields such as food science, nutrition and physiology, which bring enlightening new perspectives to the development of delicious and nutritional foods. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Food is a worldwide concern. While some parts of the world experience food shortages, chronic metabolic diseases have emerged from food overconsumption in other parts of the world. Both situations can result in shorter life expectancy and represent a major global health problem. Health care costs are rising due in part to several obesity-related chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases. More than ever, it is essential that all the knowledge on food conception, formulation and processing is wisely exploited to develop foods that will provide a healthy lifestyle. This is favorable to the fast development of functional foods and has brought the food industry to evaluate and revise the composition of their processed foods as well as their processing conditions and methods to improve nutritional and health effects and to address the functional food market. The improvement of food product has been done through several ways, such as by incorporating bioactive components in standard foods, by reformulating standard food composition to withdraw some less nutritive or even deleterious compounds (e.g., industrial trans fatty acids, salt, fast sugar, etc.), by addition of bioactive nutrients or by developing new foods with healthier constituents. The need to develop nutritious foods and functional foods has brought the entire industry to reconsider every aspect of their food processing to evaluate the health benefits of food. The addition of new bioactive compounds to a food requires that the bioactive agent is in an active form by the time it reaches the gastrointestinal tract where is could be assimilated. The food to which the bioactive compound is added can be selected to be a good vector. However, for traditional foods, are the current processes used and the composition of the food carefully balanced to ensure optimal nutritional properties? This is usually evaluated by nutritionists based on individual nutrient content; however, the potential effect of the food matrix on the nutritional properties is seldom considered. This paper aims to review the concepts and facts which are the basis of the new area of research considering the role of food structure on the nutritional properties of conventional and functional foods. Several original approaches have emerged, bringing together scientists from fields such as food science, nutrition and physiology, which should permit the enlightenment of new perspectives in developing “delicious” and nutritional foods. 2. Nutritional properties of food The nutritional evaluation of food has been, and is still, largely based on the respective quantities of each nutritive constituent such as protein, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. As more knowledge is gained on human needs and the health prop- erties of various nutrients, this information is transferred to the consumer through nutritional labeling, presenting the actual contribution of each food portion on the daily recommended consumption of nutrients. With the introduction of functional foods, some bioactive compounds are added to common foods that * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 418 656 2131x4970; fax: þ1 418 656 3353. E-mail address: sylvie.turgeon@fsaa.ulaval.ca (S.L. Turgeon). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Hydrocolloids journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodhyd 0268-005X/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodhyd.2011.02.026 Food Hydrocolloids 25 (2011) 1915e1924