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Understanding foods as soft materials

Nature Materials volume 4, pages 729–740 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Foods make up some of the most complex examples of soft condensed matter (SCM) with which we interact daily. Their complexity arises from several factors: the intricacy of components, the different aggregation states in which foods are encountered, and the multitude of relevant characteristic time and length scales. Because foodstuffs are governed by the rules of SCM physics but with all the complications related to real systems, the experimental and theoretical approaches of SCM physics have deepened our comprehension of their nature and behaviour, but many questions remain. In this review we discuss the current understanding of food science, by considering established SCM methods as well as emerging techniques and theoretical approaches. With their complexity, heterogeneity and multitude of states, foods provide SCM physics with a challenge of remarkable importance.

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Figure 1: Schematic state diagram of colloidal particles with short-range potentials.
Figure 2: The sol–gel transition, from model systems to yoghurt and ceramics.
Figure 3: Gel network structure obtained by SEM (a, b) and TEM (c, d) of gels fermented with Streptococcus thermophylus under different conditions.
Figure 4: Time-lapse sequence (extracted from a video) illustrating Ostwald ripening.
Figure 5: Three-dimensional reconstruction of foam interface consisting of biopolymers using confocal microscopy.
Figure 6: Cryotransmission electron micrographs of some liquid crystalline phases encountered in foods, re-dispersed in water.
Figure 7: Phase diagram of a food system based on water and an industrial grade of monolinolein.
Figure 8: Range of applicability of classical DLS, 3D-DLS and DWS.

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  1. Department of Physics, University of Fribourg, Perolles, Fribourg, CH-1700, Switzerland

    Raffaele Mezzenga & Peter Schurtenberger

  2. Nestlé Research Center, Vers-Chez-Les-Blanc, Lausanne, 26, CH-1000, Switzerland

    Raffaele Mezzenga, Adam Burbidge & Martin Michel

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Mezzenga, R., Schurtenberger, P., Burbidge, A. et al. Understanding foods as soft materials. Nature Mater 4, 729–740 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1496

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