208-226 Food Structure and Function

208-225 Food Chemistry, Biology and Nutrition

The basic biochemical components that form the structure of food products consist of the natural materials assembled in relationships that can be altered by the presence of additives, ingredients and processing or handling. This subject examines the macro structure of food, and the relationships between the basic structure and the additives (emulsifiers, flavours and other components in the environment of the total matrix), plus the physical chemistry of the components as part of a food matrix, including the influence of processing on these structures. This will include the interactions between emulsifiers and flavours within a food matrix, and interactions between water-proteins, water, lipids, protein-proteins, protein-lipids, protein-carbohydrates, and carbohydrate-lipids. This subject will describe the influence of processing on these interactions among food components using examples from research projects in related areas.

On completion of this subject, students should be able to:

• recognise the importance of interactions of ingredients in food systems;

• describe the interaction of water with food components;

• explain the interactions of emulsifiers with other food components;

• describe the significance of flavour interactions with food matrix and their effects on perception;

• describe the role of interactions among food components on microstructure, texture and rheology of food products; and

• display an understanding of the impact of food processing on the interactions between macro-components of food components, the structure of the macro-components and the consequences of these interactions.

One 2-hour final examination (45%), one 1-hour mid-semester examination (25%) and one assignment of 2000 words (30%).

• G G Anilkumar (ed.), Ingredient Interactions (Effect on Food Quality). Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1995.