NLF Food Webinar series

Welcome to a LINXS Food Webinar series, showcasing selected presentations from the Northern Lights on Food Masterclass that took place on Sept 1-3, 2020.

The aim of the masterclass was to provide participants with basic knowledge of selected techniques accessed in large scale facilities, and how to design experiments with particular attention to the complexity of food systems. Techniques available at Large-Scale Research Infrastructure MAX IV Laboratory and the European Spallation Source, ESS, include spectroscopic, imaging and scattering techniques based on either X-rays or neutrons. These techniques allow us to obtain detailed compositional maps of food materials and obtain structural information ranging from the atomic, nano- to the micrometer scale. The high brilliance at such facilities also enables fast in situ experiments that can help us understand how to control structure formation at different developmental stages of food products.

Understanding food structure that controls storage qualities, uptake and nutritional value as well as texture and perception is the key challenge for food scientist and product developers in academia and food industry. Structural properties of food are multi-dimensional and we therefore need to understand their structure at various length and time scales. The quality and availability of the product is also subject to consumer demands and choices made by plant breeder and food producer. We therefore need to consider the whole production, from raw material quality, starting with seed quality and plant breeding, to food processing and the final product. The latter also includes packaging and how the food interacts with packaging during storage and consumer handling.