The Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series presents Erik van der Linden, of The Netherlands, discussing "Physics and Food Stuff" on Oct. 14.

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Abstract: The world faces considerable challenges in the next decades in providing tasty, healthy, and sustainably produced food in sufficient amounts. A relevant example in this context is ingredient availability in relation to food texture, taste, smell, colour, and  its impact on nutrition, health and sustainable production.

The challenges are often interrelated and many relate to physical phenomena. As such, physics is a discipline that may help to provide a common framework.

The key element is to be able to relate the macroscopic to the molecular scale. For food stuff this is in particular interesting since it contains so called meso-structures from the nano-meter the milli-meter range, which are varying widely in properties for different foods, and which are usually subject to non-equilibrium conditions. 

Apart from properties to be understood on the meso-structural scale, the design and engineering of novel meso-structures in food stuffs allows to develop food properties hitherto impossible.

Examples will be given in the first part of the lecture on how to design/engineer novel structures for novel food stuff, and how meso-structural information helps to understand food properties, and in the second part of the lecture on how plant based ingredients can be applied using processing routes that are more sustainable than currently practiced. This second part relates to ensuring sufficiently adaptable food production in a more sustainable manner.