Chia seeds and their mucilage gels provide a nutritionally and functionally promising ingredient for the food and pharmaceutical industry.

Cohesiveness and flowability of particulated food systems is of particular interest in the oral processing and swallowing of food products, especially for people suffering from dysphagia. Although cohesiveness of a bolus is an essential parameter in swallowing, a robust technique for objective measurement of cohesiveness of particulated semi- or soft-solids is still lacking. In our approach the ring shear tester is used to measure the cohesiveness and flowability of a model particulated food system based on fresh green pea powders and pastes with controlled moisture content. The focus is on how the cohesiveness and flowability of dry pea particles change as they absorb moisture, swell and soften, while continuously agglomerating until a paste like bolus is achieved. Differently hydrated pea powders start to granulate with increasing moisture content resulting in decreasing flowability and increasing cohesiveness until a critical moisture content of approximately 73 wt% is reached. Above the critical moisture content, cohesiveness starts to decrease and flowability increases, i.e. indicating the transition into the rheological domain of concentrated suspension flow. Besides moisture content we also show that water adsorption capacity i.e. hydration properties and resulting degree of particle softness tremendously influences the flowability factor and cohesiveness of powder systems. Thus ring shear tester can be used to provide guidelines for food paste formulation with controlled cohesiveness.

Wheat bran consumption is associated with several health benefits, but its incorporation into food products remains low because of sensory and technofunctional issues. Besides, its full beneficial potential is probably not achieved because of its recalcitrant nature and inaccessible structure. Particle size reduction can affect both technofunctional and nutrition-related properties. Therefore, in this study, wet milling and cryogenic milling, two techniques that showed potential for extreme particle size reduction, were used. The effect of the milling techniques, performed on laboratory and large scale, was evaluated on the structure and physicochemical properties of wheat bran. With a median particle size (d₅₀) of 6 µm, the smallest particle size was achieved with cryogenic milling on a laboratory scale. Cryogenic milling on a large scale and wet milling on laboratory and large scale resulted in a particle size reduction to a d₅₀ of 28–38 µm. In the milled samples, the wheat bran structure was broken down, and almost all cells were opened. Wet milling on laboratory and large scale resulted in bran with a more porous structure, a larger surface area and a higher capacity for binding water compared to cryogenic milling on a large scale. The extensive particle size reduction by cryogenic milling on a laboratory scale resulted in wheat bran with the highest surface area and strong water retention capacity. Endogenous enzyme activity and mechanical breakdown during the different milling procedures resulted in different extents of breakdown of starch, sucrose, β-glucan, arabinoxylan and phytate. Therefore, the diverse impact of the milling techniques on the physicochemical properties of wheat bran could be used to target different technofunctional and health-related properties.

The Task Force on Food Processing for Nutrition, Diet and Health established by the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) has developed a rational approach to determine the impact of food processing on the nutritional value of processed foods, called the IUFoST Formulation and Processing Classification (IF&PC) scheme which is comprehensively reported here. The purpose of developing this scheme is (A) to address the current confusion between formulation and processing and thereby offer assistance to improve and refine the controversial NOVA classification system, and (B) to explore the potential for considering other relevant essential food attributes, such as (a) safety, (b) sustainability, (c) palatability, (d) affordability, and (e) convenience in food product classification. The authors recommend that this IUFoST initiative be further investigated and complemented based on concerted R&D interactions of food scientists, food engineers, and nutritionists.

The crystallization behavior of lipids is relevant in many fields such as adipose tissue formation and regeneration, forensic investigations and food production. Using a lipid model system composed of triacylglycerols, we study the formation of crystalline structures under laminar shear flows across various length scales by polarized light-, scanning electron-, and atomic force microscopy, as well as laser diffraction spectroscopy. The shear rate during crystallization γ̇_cryst influences the acyl-chain length structure and promotes domain growth into the flow direction thereby transforming the crystallites from oblate into prolate particles. Concentration dependent aggregation of crystallites into clusters is the rate limiting step for floc and floc network formation. At high γ̇_cryst, fast crystallite cluster formation at smaller equilibrium diameters is promoted. The high crystallite cluster concentration induces their aggregation into flocs which form weak networks. At low γ̇_cryst, floc generation is limited by the low amount of crystallite clusters leading to slow growth of larger flocs and forming of strong networks. The findings in this work have potential implications ranging from the design of injectable soft tissue fillers for adipose tissue regeneration, to the crystalline network formation in microorganism derived lipids, up to a more energy-efficient production of chocolate confectionery.