ABSTRACT
Material science principles are being applied increasingly to foods. The proportion of crystalline or amorphous structure within certain foods has important consequences on their mechanical behavior. This chapter introduces the principles of materials science applied to foods and related systems. Section 7.2 deals with free radical chain reactions for manufacturing packaging materials; similar reactions lead to the oxidation of lipids and other food components. (See also Chapter 9.) Consideration of polymer structure provides important insights about how food materials behave during processing and storage (Section 7.3). Section 7.4 deals with order-disorder transitions and their measurement in terms of the glass transition temperature (Tg) and the role of water as a plasticizer. Section 7.5 considers biopolymer structure and the connection between polymer shape, size, and the texture of liquid foods. Ideas in Section 7.6 are further expanded in Chapter 8, which describes food rheology.
