This group emphasizes understanding of structure-function relationships at the molecular, microscopic, and macroscopic levels, with the intent of developing prescriptive models that would assist in development of new food.
First and foremost, foods provide us with physical nourishment; you quite literally are what you eat. Foods are multi-component, multiphase materials, i.e., material composites, with properties governed by the physical and chemical interactions of their constituents. “Functionality" of an ingredient results from these interactions.
This group emphasizes understanding of structure-function relationships at the molecular, microscopic and macroscopic levels, with the intent of developing prescriptive, in contrast to descriptive, models that would assist in new product or process development and improvement. Historically our focus has been the influence of structure at the supra-molecular through microscopic spatial scales on the physical and sensory properties of food, with the goal to understand and quantify processing-microstructure-property relationships.
Researchers in the Department of Food Science working in the area of Material Nature of Foods.
