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Engineering and technology
- Rheology
- Computational materials science
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Agricultural and food sciences
- Food physics
- Food technology
Controlling food texture has prominent implications ranging from food sustainability to its acceptability by individual consumers, passing through nutritional and health-related aspects. Food can be considered as a composite material whose texture is ruled by its microstructure, and therefore can be treated as a particle reinforced matrix generating the texture perceived by the consumer. Sustainability and food personalization motivate this interdisciplinary project that combines food engineering, complex fluid rheology and computational mechanics of composites. A plant-based imitation cheese as food composite is proposed. The rheologymicrostructure relationship will be modeled and linked to final texture via 3D printing. Inspired by advanced composites from aerospace, a state-of-the-art computational multiscale framework will be developed, leading to tunable and environmentally friendly alternative products to reduce issues like livestock raising, deforestation and global warming.