Boosting structural food science using X-ray and neutron techniques
Review article, 2026
Knowledge about food structures at different length scales is key for the continued development of sustainable, tasty and healthy foods. It is critical to control, model and predict the supramolecular architecture of foods along the whole value chain: from raw materials, to their changes during processing, all the way to how products form structures during consumption and digestion. Today, advanced physical methods enable us to obtain structural information from the nanoscale-to the microscale with unprecedented resolution. The structural details can then relate to the mesoscale and microscale functionalities, important for the appeal and consumption of food products. X-ray and neutron techniques expand and strengthen the food structure characterisation toolbox. They enable in situ and in operando investigations with greater detail as well as new types of measurements that are not possible with other techniques. The knowledge gained will complement compositional and functional data obtained by other techniques, providing robustness to the interpretation of complex structural information. There are several intrinsic scientific challenges to overcome: from the lack of relevant sample environments to advanced data processing and modelling tools that consider the complexity of the food. The new frontier in food structural science can be gained through interdisciplinary collaborations not only in academia but also from the wider innovation ecosystem. This review showcases how the use of X-ray and neutron techniques is already leading to transformational knowledge in structural food science with a perspective that points to the future of this new multidisciplinary discipline.
Author
M. Corredig
Aarhus University
Lund University
Anna Millqvist Fureby
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
Lund University
Henrik Hansson
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
A. Jackson
European Spallation Source (ESS)
Maud Langton
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Selma Maric
MAX IV Laboratory
Emma Nordell
Lund University
T. Nylander
Sungkyunkwan University
Lund Institute of Advanced Neutron and X-ray Science (LINXS)
Lund University
Marjorie Ladd Parada
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Jens Risbo
University of Copenhagen
Elisabet Rytter
The Swedish Food Federation
Anna Ström
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry
francisco Vilaplana
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Niklas Lorén
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
Food Hydrocolloids
0268-005X (ISSN)
Vol. 170 111674Strengthen food sector research and innovation by enabling use of neutron and synchrotron techniques
VINNOVA (2021-04909), 2021-12-01 -- 2024-07-31.
Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Food Science
DOI
10.1016/j.foodhyd.2025.111674