Food texture engineering: linking molecular characterization, oral processing, and digestion

Transforming the agri-food system requires a deep understanding of food structure, oral processing, and structural breakdown during digestion. Current gaps include the molecular characterization of the major food constituents, process-structure-texture interactions, and digestion behavior. A comprehensive scientific understanding of linking these areas is essential for plant-based food texture engineering, especially analogues to animal-based products. Advances in foodomics enhance the full characterization of raw materials. Non-invasive, multiscale food structure analysis is important, but there is a further need for the development of in-operando imaging techniques. Extracting fundamental mechanical properties during oral processing is still challenging. Texture and sensory perception depend on complex, multiscale interactions, not just structure and must be assessed by novel biophysical approaches. Existing static and dynamic in-vitro models are widely applied and valuable for studying digestion kinetics, but they cannot replicate the full complexity of physiological conditions. However, they remain essential for the rational design of plant-based foods. • Transforming food systems requires a new understanding of food structure • Food structure governs texture, oral processing and breakdown during digestion • Acomprehensive picture is essential for plant-based food texture engineering • New development of spatially and time-resolved imaging techniques is needed • Oral breakdown and in vitro digestion models need to be improved