ADSA Foundation Scholar Award: Materials science approach to the study of mechanical and diffusion properties in...

Dairy products can be manufactured in a variety of structural forms (e.g., liquid, semi-solids, and solids). Although liquid milk is a colloidal dispersion of fat and protein in the serum portion, it can easily be converted into a soft gel (yogurt) upon acid coagulation. Similarly, cheese, a rennet-coagulated, casein-rich fraction of milk, falls in the category of semi-solid foods. Structurally, all of these materials are complex in nature because of interactions between protein, fat, and water components. The structural origin of these diversified food textures is derived from the way that various food constituents are arranged to form a unique body or mass. Food materials science helps in the assessment of structural arrangements of these molecules at various length scales. This article focuses on the use of various materials science approaches for understanding the fundamental relationship between process, structure, and property in solving critical issues that pertain to the dairy industry and academia.