Magnetic resonance for foods

This represents a challenge as foods are complex materials. Their structure and dynamics span many length and time scales. Magnetic resonance techniques like NMR and MRI are especially useful here because they assess dynamic events in a non-invasive manner.

Another key part of our work is linking food composition to taste, aroma, and nutritional quality. NMR allows us to quickly and accurately identify the molecules responsible for these qualities, including those involved in unwanted processes such as lipid oxidation. This research helps us better understand how foods behave and improve food manufacturing processes.

Examples

We study a wide range of food-related questions, from how powders stick together and to how processing affects protein digestion in infant nutrition, to how lipid oxidation occurs in emulsions and how fluids move through tiny spaces in complex food matrices. Our research on product composition, we carry out in collaboration with the laboratory of Food Chemistry.