Probing Food Structure

The relationship between a food’s structure and its properties/functionalities is of fundamental interest in food materials science. The great expectation is to relate the functionality of a food material to the physico-chemical characteristics of its ingredients and their geometric arrangement (i.e., structure formation). Functionalities of interest are either of chemical (e.g., flavor release from a given matrix), physical/ mechanical (e.g., shelf life, sensory) or biological nature (e.g., nutrient bioavailability). Currently we are far from being able on a routine basis to relate food structures to functionality, and only in rare cases is it possible to establish a direct relationship (Renard et al. 2006). Recent examples are ice crystal size and fat destabilization in ice cream and its effects on texture and melting properties (Muse and Hartel 2004) as well as sugar particle size in chocolate and its influence on the rheological properties of the chocolate mass (Servais et al. 2002).