Speaker
Dr
Elliot Gilbert
(ANSTO)
Description
On a daily basis, the most ubiquitous form of soft condensed matter with which we interact is food. Globally, there are major concerns around food, nutrition, bioenergy and the environment transcending borders. There are also significant challenges arising from the increasing food demand governed by a growing population, rapidly changing food preferences and increasing demand for high standards of food quality governed by economic developments, impact of agriculture on the environment, and the effect of climate change.
When designing new food products for the market-place, it is of increasing importance to understand the relationships between the form and functional properties of food constituents, including food structure, nutrition, physiological and its sensory properties. The creation of novel functionalities of active ingredients in complex food systems requires knowledge of not only the structure of native agricultural materials but also the changes in their structure across a wide range of length scales brought about by food processing. It is the inherent complexity of modern food systems that calls for interdisciplinary scientific approaches to be applied.
To tackle many of these issues, ANSTO commenced the ‘Food Science Programme’ in 2005. The programme was conceived as having a focus on neutron scattering but naturally and necessarily utilises ANSTO’s broader infrastructure in X-ray scattering and diffraction, electron microscopy, the National Deuteration Facility and the Australian Synchrotron.
This presentation will cover the first ten years of the 'Food Structure and Dynamics' group at ANSTO and describe several examples including starch, oleogelators, triglycerides, digestion and food processing.
| Topic Area / Session | General Food Science |
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Primary author
Dr
Elliot Gilbert
(ANSTO)
