Programmable Microdomains in Multicomponent Food Gels: Coupling Aroma Persistence, Oral Processing, and Gastrointestinal Bioaccessibility

Multicomponent food gels can regulate flavour release during consumption and bioactive fate during digestion, yet the two trajectories are usually studied separately. This critical narrative review synthesizes the available literature using an operational framework that links material composition, structural topology, and functional microdomains to transformations during storage, oral processing, gastric digestion, intestinal lipolysis, and micellarization. It considers protein- and polysaccharide-rich regions, oil domains, aqueous channels, interfaces, and cross-links across protein-based, mixed-biopolymer, emulsion-filled, Pickering-stabilized, oleogel-in-water, and plant-based systems. Existing studies support links between architecture and individual aroma or digestion outcomes; only one representative study in this review followed oral processing and gastrointestinal fate sequentially in the same formulation, and it did not establish human sensory or absorption outcomes. Sensory-nutritional coordination is therefore a testable design hypothesis, not a broadly validated effect. Gel strength and encapsulation efficiency alone cannot predict performance because partitioning, binding, diffusion, fracture, erosion, proteolysis, interfacial displacement, lipolysis, and micelle loading occur on different timescales. We define measurable variables and a staged screening workflow, and identify harmonized methods, reference gels, and pilot-scale validation as priorities.