Study Characterizes Polysaccharide–Protein Composite Gels for Potential Dysphagia Applications

A paper titled "Development and characterization of polysaccharide–protein composite gels for dysphagia-friendly applications" was published on 08 May 2026. com reported. Candidate food-grade polysaccharides permitted under GB 2760-2014 were screened.

Twelve candidate polysaccharides were screened, and only HA-GG and HPMC satisfied all screening criteria. A three-factor, four-level L16 (4³) orthogonal design was used to optimize formulation composition and fermentation time. 3 wt% HA-GG, and 13 h fermentation.

All three factors affected screening performance. Gel hardness increased at moderate polysaccharide incorporation but declined at higher levels. Rheological analysis confirmed elastic-dominant gel behavior across formulations.

Scanning electron microscopy revealed improved network continuity at moderate incorporation but excessive compactness at higher levels. The paper was received on 01 February 2026 and accepted on 28 April 2026. 1038/s41538-026-00873-w.

Muxi Chen and Yi Cheng contributed equally to the paper. The authors are Muxi Chen, Yi Cheng, Juan Duan, Zhengyun Shang, Wen Hu, and Yuan Liu. All authors are affiliated with Department of Clinical Nutrition, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Muxi Chen is also affiliated with Clinical Medicine College, College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Mianyang, China. Yuan Liu is the corresponding author. The work was supported by the project “Key Technologies and New Product Development for Intelligent and Safe Production of Foods for Special Medical Purposes” (Grant No.

JH2019045). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests. These findings demonstrate that balanced polysaccharide–protein network organization is critical for the rational design of stable fermented gel matrices with potential relevance to dysphagia-oriented food applications, according to the paper.