1 The knowledge and any capability to predict how a food may disintegrate in the stomach are important for developing new food products with novel health benefits. From an engineering perspective, the stomach is a receptacle, a grinder, a mixer, and a pump that controls the digestion process. The stomach is a major compartment where the size of food particulates is reduced after oral mastication. For this purpose, it is critical to understand how foods break down during digestion in the GI tract. Recent developments in food processing have focused on manufacturing foods for healthy benefits such as targeting release of nutrients in desired sites of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract. A study of the change of carrot microstructure during digestion indicated that degradation of the pectin and cell wall was responsible for texture softening that contributed to the sigmoidal profile of carrot disintegration. Acidity and temperature of gastric juice showed a synergistic effect on carrot softening, while pepsin was the key factor in disintegrating high-protein foods. A linear-exponential equation was used to describe the different disintegration curves with good fit. The different profiles are the result of competition among the rates of water absorption, texture softening, and erosion.

disintegration time) may be expressed with exponential, sigmoidal, and delayed-sigmoidal profiles. When erosion was dominant, the disintegration data (weight retention vs. The internal cohesive forces changed during digestion as a result of water penetration and acidic and enzymatic hydrolysis. Food disintegration was dominated by either fragmentation or erosion, depending on the physical forces acting on food and the cohesive force within the food matrix. Mechanisms contributing to the disintegration kinetics of different foods were investigated as related to acidity, temperature, and enzymatic effect on the texture and changes in microstructure.

Food disintegration modes and typical disintegration profiles are summarized in this paper. A model stomach system was used to investigate disintegration of various foods in simulated gastric environment.

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