Free fatty acid, free cholesterol, and 2-monoacylglycerol are the primary products of dietary lipid digestion in the jejunum. Together with bile salts, they form micelles, which are clusters of amphipathic lipids that coalesce with their hydrophobic groups on the inside and their hydrophilic group on the outside of the cluster and are soluble in the aqueous environment of the intestinal lumen.

These micelles are separated from the liquid contents of the intestinal lumen by an unstirred layer of water and get poorly mixed with the bulk fluid. The hydrophilic surface of the micelles favours the transport of hydrophobic lipids through the unstirred layer to the brush border membrane of the intestine, where they get absorbed.