Evaluation of a functional food preparation based on chitosan as a meal replacement diet

• A novel chitosan emulsion is proposed as a meal replacement functional food.
• As a functional food, water soluble and insoluble ingredients can be incorporated in the preparation.
• We have optimized the formulations and determined their physical characteristics.
• The safety of ingesting the proposed emulsion was challenged preclinically.
• We have examined preclinically the optimum preparation as a low calorie pseudo fatty meal for enhancing satiety.

The ability of chitosan to entrap large amounts of water when dispersed in an oily phase was utilized to formulate a novel meal replacement functional food. Furthermore, the proposed preparation can be fortified with nutrients. The purpose of this formulation was to produce an edible low calorie pseudo-fatty rich meal that can enhance the feeling of satiety when ingested. Different concentrations of chitosan and pectin were tested to find out a stable preparation with acceptable physical characteristics. It was found that a preparation containing 1% chitosan and 6% pectin is suitable to be consumed as a meal replacement diet. The safety of such preparation was assessed by repeated dose administration to rats. A set of other in vivo experiments was performed to assess the ability of this preparation to enhance satiety. The ingestion of chitosan preparation resulted in reduced body weight, food and water intake, and reduced faecal excretion in the emulsion administered rats (p < 0.05). Furthermore, serum lipids of tested rats were not essentially changed. Accordingly, the investigated chitosan emulsion could be introduced as a low calorie, relatively stable and a safe functional food preparation for enhancing satiety when ingested as a meal replacement diet.