Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
products. Food is a material with a structural hierarchy from the macro-
scopic level where we experience its benefits, such as taste, smell, and tex-
ture, through the meso- and microlevels, all the way down to the nanolevel.
It is therefore not surprising that a technology that allows the industry to
modify the materials at the nanolevel will provide new opportunities for
new products and modifications to specific characteristics of existing prod-
ucts. Although virtually all processing that is being done to food products,
including cooking at home, modifies structural elements at the nanolevel,
nanotechnology now enables to do that with a precision not encountered
before. Boiling an egg, for instance, modifies the structure of the proteins,
causing the textural changes that allow the egg to be sliced. This is a macro-
scopic process, and all components of the egg are affected by the treatment.
Nanotechnology would allow, for instance, to modify only specific proteins
or change the structure of the proteins in a defined way. Although this may
seem not to be very useful in the case of an egg, it will prove to be very useful
in other foodstuffs.
5.3.1 Texture Modification
Production of sufficient high-quality (protein-rich) food will be a global
challenge for the next decades. Emerging and rapidly developing econo-
mies combine large populations with steeply rising standards of living.
These populations will develop a demand for more protein, preferably of
animal source. Unfortunately, the traditional way of producing animal pro-
tein, through animal husbandry and the meat industry, is highly inefficient.
To be able to fulfill the higher demand for proteins, it will be necessary to
find new ways to convert plant protein directly in a product that sufficiently
mimics the properties of meat to be acceptable as a meat replacement. Meat,
especially the high-quality kind, is made up of muscle tissue. Muscle has a
structural hierarchy with fascicles, fibers, and fibrils. This hierarchy is also
the basis of the structure of meat. When new products are being developed
that in future have the potential to fulfill the demands of consumers, it is
necessary to recreate the structural hierarchy. This requires the ability to
first create a nanostructure of protein fibrils to build upon toward the higher
structural levels. With the addition of nanotechnology to the toolbox of the
food technologist, these abilities come into reach (Manski et al. 2007).
Because it is now possible to modify and control the texture all the way
down to the nanolevel, it is possible to create totally new sensations for the
consumer. In part, these new sensations could comprise the texture of foods,
which is the experience of structure in the mouth of the consumer (Wilkinson
et al. 2000). In fact, the recreation of the structural hierarchy to create meat
from nonanimal sources is the ultimate texture engineering. However, tex-
ture modification could also be less ambitious. Some food products are too
soft or hard for the taste of specific consumer groups. By modifying the
