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The MOON Project is funded by the Centre National Interprofessionnel de l'Economie Laitière (CNIEL) and supported by the UMR STLO of INRA and also involves the BIA Unit and the INPT Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, at the academic level, and the company LEMMA specialized in numerical methods and intensive scientific computing in the field of fluid and structure mechanics.

Within CNIEL, the "Matière Grasse" Working Group has built this research project around the needs related to the characterization of milk fat components and their technofunctionalities. Milk lipids play an important role in the functional, sensory and nutritional properties of dairy products. This role can be modulated by the organization of lipids as well as by the composition and architecture of the lipid/water phase interface.

The native membrane of milk fat globules has a complex structure resulting from the mechanism of excretion in the udder. The processes used in the dairy industry, and in particular the homogenization stage, alter the structure and composition of the fat globule membrane and can have important functional consequences, particularly in cheese technology by modifying the interactions between fat globules and caseins.

The shear-induced changes in the structure of the milk emulsion can lead to the deconstruction of the native milk emulsion and/or allow the construction of emulsions with interfacial properties that are appropriate to specific applications.

The objectives of this project are therefore the following:

i)  to determine the effects of shearing (pumping, homogenization) on the size of fat globules combined with their surface properties,
ii)  to propose a new approach combining experimental and numerical analyses for the formulation of a rupture model and a scale law usable for scale-up (& down) of a HHP (high pressure homogenizer) process.
iii) to characterize the structure and surface properties of native fat globules in order to understand the determinants of the interfacial properties of fat globules and thus propose levers to modulate the size of fat globules (for example, to decrease them to ensure their physical stability) while trying to preserve the properties provided by the "biological structure" of their membrane.

The BIA Unit will be in charge of identifying the structural and compositional determinants that govern the interfacial properties of milk native fat globules and the reconstruction of biomimetic fat globules. This task is coordinated by Alain Riaublanc of the ISD team in conjunction with the UMR STLO.

Partners:

•     National Interprofessional Centre for Dairy Economics (CNIEL)
•     Joint Research Unit "Science and Technology of Milk and Egg" (UMR1253 INRA Agrocampus Ouest)
•     Own research unit INRA-BIA "Biopolymers-Interactions-Assembly" (UR 1268)
•     Chemical Engineering Laboratory (UMR CNRS N°5503) of INPT
•     SARL LEMMA

Coordination : Christelle Lopez, UMR STLO, Rennes.

Project duration: 27 months (01/10/2016 - 31/12/2018).

Budget:

•     Total cost 595 k€ HT financed up to 305,5 k€ by the CNIEL.
•     Amount of aid paid to BIA: 83k€