ABSTRACT

The phenomenon of capillarity can occur during culinary processes because the thermal treatment of animal or plant tissues weakens the material holding together the cells making up the tissues. For all the phenomena for which capillarity, diffusion, osmosis or “imbibition” is considered as the interpretation, the core question is the exchange of matter between food and its environment. Water loss from the interior of foods during thermal treatments has sometimes been attributed solely to “diffusion”, and it is possible that some molecular diffusion occurs when the open channels of xylem and phloem of a cut plant tissue are in direct contact with an aqueous environment. Capillarity occurs not only in muscular tissues but also in some dishes made of plant tissues. In order to control matter transfers through capillarity, a mathematical description of the phenomemon is useful.