Movements of moisture and acid in gastric milk clots during gastric digestion: Spatiotemporal mapping using hyperspectral imaging.

Ruminant milk is known to coagulate into structured clots during gastric digestion. This study investigated the movements of moisture and acid in skim milk clots formed during dynamic gastric digestion and the effects of milk type (regular or calcium-rich) and the presence/absence of pepsin. We conducted hyperspectral imaging analysis and successfully modelled the moisture contents based on the spectral information using partial least squares regression. We generated prediction maps of the spatiotemporal distribution of moisture within the samples at different stages of gastric digestion. Simultaneously to acid uptake, the moisture in the milk clots tended to decrease over the digestion time; this was significantly promoted by pepsin. Moisture mapping by hyperspectral imaging demonstrated that the high and low moisture zones were centralized within the clot and at the surface respectively. A structural compaction process promoted by pepsinolysis and acidification probably contributed to the water expulsion from the clots during digestion.