Rheology in Food and Eating

The role of rheology in food and nutrition science and technology is discussed. Since the mouthfeel or texture is one of the most important attributes of foods, rheological studies have been carried out extensively. Rheology is important in the understanding textural properties of foods and food processing, and mastication and deglutition in eating process. These problems are becoming more important with the advent of aged society where dysphagia is becoming a serious problem. Large deformation and fracture of food gels is discussed. Recent advances in the understanding of sol-gel transition of food macromolecules, sensory evaluation of viscosity in mouth, and flavour release are described.