Food physical transformations during

The structure of foods comes from nature or it is imparted through processing, storage, or during preparation. The structure of processed foods evolved throughout the centuries, mostly by trial-and-error, based on a few raw materials and simple transformations induced by mankind. Structure is important in foods because it can be related to physical properties and, by extension, to their quality and acceptability. 

Molecular Gastronomy (MG) is the scientific discipline looking for new phenomena and mechanisms in culinary transformations. As plant tissues are important in the human diet, one issue of MG is the study of modifications of plant tissues during thermal treatment, including such treatments in aqueous solutions. These modifications can be of physical and chemical nature. Plant tissues, in particular, and food ingredients in general being complex disperse systems, physical and chemical phenomena can be linked. 

C Hoebler, A Karinthi, M-F Devaux, F Guillon, DJG Gallant, B Bouchet, C Melegari, J-L Barry. Physical and chemical transformations of cereal food during oral digestion in human subjects. Br J Nutr 80 429 36, 1998. 

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