Latest advances in imaging techniques for characterizing soft, multiphasic food materials

Over the last two decades, the development and production of innovative, customer-tailored food products withenhanced health benefits have seen major advances. However, the manufacture of edible materials with tunedphysical and organoleptic properties requires a good knowledge of food microstructure and its relationship tothe macroscopic properties of thefinal food product. Food products are complex materials, often consisting ofmultiple phases. Furthermore, each phase usually contains a variety of biological macromolecules, such as carbo-hydrates, proteins and lipids, as well as water droplets and gas bubbles. Micronutrients, such as vitamins andminerals, might also play an important role in determining and engineering food microstructure. Consideringthis complexity, highly advanced physio-chemical techniques are required for characterizing the microstructureof food systems prior to, during and after processing. Fast,in situtechniques are also essential for industrial ap-plications. Due to the wide variety of instruments and methods, the scope of this paper is focused only on the lat-est advances of selected food characterization techniques, with emphasis on soft, multi-phasic food materials.