Food gels: principles, interaction mechanisms and its microstructure

Abstract

Food hydrogels are important materials having great scientific interest due to biocompatibility, safety and environment-friendly characteristics. In the food industry, hydrogels are widely used due to their three-dimensional crosslinked networks. Furthermore, they have attracted great attention due to their wide range of applications in the food industry, such as fat replacers, encapsulating agents, target delivery vehicles, and many more. In addition to basic and recent knowledge on food hydrogels, this review exclusively focuses on sensorial perceptions, nutritional significance, body interactions, network structures, mechanical properties, and potential hydrogel applications in food and food-based matrices. Additionally, this review highlights the structural design of hydrogels, which provide the forward-looking idea for future applications of food hydrogels (e.g., 3D or 4D printing).

Keywords:

• Bioactive compounds
• fat replacers
• food applications
• hydrogels
• mechanical strength

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Mr. Todd Axel Johnsen from the Infochemistry Scientific Centre, ITMO University, for his assistance in the editing and proofreading of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.