Rational food design and food microstructure.

Abstract

Background. From the consumers’ perspective changes should be made in the ways we produce, process and fabricate our foods. Rational food design (RFD) has become common term in this respect, but it is ill defined. Scope and approach. The aims of this review are to (i) discuss advances in the rational design of foods to improve the quality of products; (ii) address the role of food microstructure in achieving specific functional targets in nutrition, health and the environment; and (iii) relate active areas of food microstructure research and the interfaces with other scientific disciplines. Key findings and conclusions. RFD achieves desirable sensorial, emotional, sustainable, nutritional and health properties of foods by designing functional food microstructures and matrices after an integrated process that utilizes a versatile multi-element toolbox. Among applications of RFD are foods targeted to improve nutrition and health delivery systems for nutraceuticals, modulate the activity of the brain-gut-microbiota axis, redesign traditional products and dishes, provide a variety of personalized foods, and promote alternatives to increase the consumption of novel food sources.