Histochemistry of food tissue by colour scanning electron microscopy

A low-vacuum scanning electron microscope (SEM) allows microscopy of insulating specimens without metal coating, and so preserves the intact colour information on the specimen surface. We have attempted a new approach to characterize constituent distribution of food tissues by a histochemical method utilizing a colour SEM with an optical microscope and the low-vacuum SEM through digital image processing. To observe food tissues such as brown rice and adzuki bean, a colour SEM image of the specimen that has been stained by a modified method used in optical microscope histochemistry has proved to provide information of both the microscopic structure and constituent distribution on the specimen surface.