Food Structure: Concepts and Methods

The aim of the course is to make the students aware of the importance of the food structure for technological, sensory, and nutritional properties. Lectures will provide students with the fundamental principles and methods (both traditional and innovative) for the evaluation of food structure, especially focused on mechanical, rheological, geometrical, colorimetric, and ultrastructural properties. Laboratory practices will help students in understanding how to apply the theoretical knowledge in practical case studies and how to elaborate the collected analytical data.
The course is an important part of the curriculum in Quality and Management of the Food System, highlighting the relationship between food structure and its quality and providing the fundamental skills necessary for a critical and conscious choice of the most suitable methods for an objective evaluation of the structural properties.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- deeply understand the relationship between food processing and structure;
- choose the most suitable methods for the structural evaluation of a food material;
- optimise the analytical conditions for a given food;
- correctly elaborate and critically discuss experimental data, also in a written technical report.