Designing dairy desserts for weight management: Structure, physical properties and in vitro gastric digestion

- Low-cream extra-dairy protein panna cotta exhibited densest, firmest matrix.
- Panna cottas with extra dairy proteins would have a high satiating capacity.
- Whey proteins in panna cottas were more resistant to pepsin digestion than caseins.
- Dairy proteins in panna cottas behaved in the same way as in model systems.

The first aim of this study was to observe the effect of adding dairy proteins and reducing the cream content in order to obtain healthier dairy desserts for use in weight management. The extra-whey protein low-cream sample had the densest, firmest matrix, which is related to increased satiety. The second aim was to investigate the in vitro gastric digestion behavior of whey and casein proteins in a heat-treated semisolid real food. The extra-casein protein sample matrix broke down more slowly than the others because the caseins clotted at the gastric pH. Despite being heated, the whey proteins in the panna cottas were more resistant to pepsin digestion than caseins; this is related with a higher satiety capacity. These findings suggest that the combination of reducing fat content (to obtain a reduced energy density product) and adding whey protein (to increase satiety capacity) allows obtaining dairy desserts for weight management.