The development of new sustainable foods is currently hindered by their limited textural attributes. When processed, most sustainable food ingredients do not form structures similar to conventional food ingredients, often resulting in deficient textural attributes. This occurs at the microscopic scale, where food molecules form microscopic aggregates. These microstructures are then responsible for the macroscopic structural properties of the food materials. Therefore, studying how food molecules form microstructures will help us achieve a deeper understanding of food materials, especially of novel and sustainable foods. In this talk, I will delve into how to study food structures at the microscopic scale with the use of advanced optical microscopy techniques and quantitative image analysis.

The examples presented will be focused on the studies of food protein-based hydrocolloid gels, including traditional food ingredients as well as more sustainable food ingredients which have been studied under advanced microscopy techniques, including super-resolution optical microscopy, and label-free Coherent Raman spectroscopy-microscopy, among others. Examples also include microscopic videos of protein gelling. The microscopic images are processed and quantified using machine learning-based image analysis techniques. These quantitative microstructural parameters are then correlated to macroscopic rheological parameters, giving a multiscale understanding of food structures.

The results will show how these studies are deepening our understanding of food hydrocolloid gels, and food structure and texture in both animal and plant-based foods, and how a deeper understanding of these structures will help us develop the rationally designed foods of the future. The use of advanced optical techniques is helping us arrive at a deeper understanding of aggregated protein structures and therefore, helping us understand how food molecules form microscopic structures that govern food texture.