Characterization of Food Structures and Functionalities
1Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), Beijing, China
2University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, USA
3North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA
Characterization of Food Structures and Functionalities
Description
Some functional properties such as texture and nutrition are the most important attributes used by consumers to assess food qualities, which have been used for in nearly all kinds of food products, from beverage, yoghurt, and ice cream to bread and noodles. Nowadays, there is a desire to make foods healthier and at the same time not diminish sensory quality. This requires an understanding of key elements of food structure associated with texture and nutrition perception. Texture, in part, is perceived during oral processing of food.
Knowledge of structure-oral processing-texture interrelations could be utilized to develop or prevent specified textural attributes. Overall, the investigation of structure-oral processing-texture interrelations is just starting as a research focus preferentially. However, factors including nonuniversal and inconsistent sensory terminology, omission of consideration for structural changes incurred by oral processes, the imbalances between texture and nutrition occurring during food design, the confusions of the key elements of food structure to determine food texture or nutrition, and the lack of cross-disciplinary investigations hamper progresses in this field. Consideration of these factors in future investigations on sensory texture and nutrition functionalities, as well as the development of the relevant analytical methods for studying the structural changes or evaluating texture and nutrition functionality changes, will increase the applicability of their findings and bring us closer to understanding the contribution of food structure to sensory texture while helping us to make a balance between food textures and food functionalities during food design.
Nowadays varieties of analysis methods based on spectral analysis and chromatographic analysis have been developed to identify and analyze food composition and food structure more quickly. Technologies such as dynamic light scattering, X-ray, neutron scattering, and various microscopy (optical and electron) techniques were applied to study the food structure from different scale level, while some other analysis technologies have been developed to mimic the oral chewing procedure and the digestion procedure for food textures and food functionalities study. All these developments will help us get a better overall understanding of the relationship between food structures and functionalities.
The purpose of this special issue is to publish high-quality research papers as well as review articles addressing recent advances on investigating the interrelations between structure-oral processing-texture-nutrition functionalities of food. Original, high quality contributions that are not yet published or that are not currently under review by other journals or peer-reviewed conferences are sought.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
- Advanced technologies of analyzing the structures of food
- Advanced technologies of analyzing the textures of food
- Advanced technologies of analyzing the nutrition and functionalities of food
- Investigation of the interrelations between food compositions/food structures and food textures/ nutrition
- Analytical model from food structures to food textures/ nutrition