Emulsion stability during gastrointestinal conditions effects lipid digestion kinetics

•Use of sucrose esters caused instability under gastric conditions.•Presence of large, coalesced oil droplets caused incomplete lipolysis.•Emulsion stability during gastrointestinal conditions determined lipolysis kinetics.•Lipid digestion kinetics and carotenoid micellarization are directly linked.•Lipid digestion can be quantitatively described by kinetic modelling. Oil-in-water emulsions were prepared with carrot- or tomato-enriched olive oil (5%w/v) and stabilized with Tween80 or sucrose esters (0.5%w/v) with different hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (8; 11 or 16). All emulsions had similar initial oil droplet sizes and were submitted to simulated gastrointestinal conditions using a kinetic digestion procedure. Sucrose esters induced an unstable system after gastric conditions leading to coalesced oil droplets, while Tween80 emulsions remained stable. Emulsion particle sizes at the end of the gastric phase were directly associated with the lipolysis kinetics during the intestinal phase. Moreover, a direct relationship was observed between lipolysis and carotenoid micellarisation for all emulsions, and depended mainly on the surfactant structure used. Tween80 emulsions led to a higher lipolysis extent (53–57%) and carotenoid bioaccessibility (17–42%) compared to sucrose ester emulsions (33–52% and 9–27%, respectively). These findings show the importance of the emulsifier structure and emulsion stability during gastrointestinal conditions in modulating lipolysis kinetics.