Methods to Study Properties of Foods and Biomaterials and Their Role on Processing and Quality

By Dr. Osvaldo Campanella

Purdue University, USA

April 27th, 2016 at 9:00 am (Mexico City, MX; UTC -05:00)

The study of the rheological and physicochemical properties of foods and biomaterials is important for product development and process optimization. Unlike synthetic materials, the properties of biomaterials change significantly in short times due to the presence of enzymatic, chemical and physical changes which makes difficult their characterization. In addition, foods and biomaterials have complex compositions and structures that complicate the modeling of processes involving them. Different experimental approaches including standard and acoustic rheology and atomic force microscopy used to characterize the mechanical properties of biomaterials will be presented. Physicochemical methods including Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) and Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and Molecular Modeling (MD) applied to study the structure of foods and biomaterials and its relationship to the functionality of main components forming them will be also discussed. In addition, novel modeling approaches, notably drying, developed to describe the processing of biomaterials by including the material composition and its structural complexity will be presented.