Food Gels: Fabrication, Characterization, and Application

Dear Colleagues,

Food gels usually fabricated with proteins, polysaccharides, and lipids are a kind of viscoelastic system capable of entrapping water (hydrogels), oil (oleogels), and air (aerogels) in their three-dimensional networks. Food gels are essential for modern food formulation design and production due to their versatile functional properties, such as in modifying food structures with the desired appearance, sensory, and texture; incorporating bioactive compounds in food products with high physicochemical stability and bioavailability; creating personal foods with specific shapes through the 3D printing technique; replacing fat for the decreased excessive intake of saturated fatty acids, cholesterol, and calories; and maintaining metastable food structures and extending shelf-life. The appropriate design of food gels can not only improve food quality and personality but also improve the nutrition and health benefits of foods.

However, owing to the increased complexity of food gels formulated with biopolymers compared with the model behavior of synthetic polymer gels, the relationship between the material selection, fabrication strategy, microstructure, and mechanical and functional properties in specific food systems is still not well clarified. Furthermore, as scientific research rarely considers practical aspects, we must investigate how to fill in the gap between theory and practice for scaling up the production of innovative gel-based foods with improved characteristics and functionalities.

We invite you to submit your latest research findings or review articles to this Special Issue, which will bring together current research concerning food gels (e.g., hydrogels, oleogels, aerogels, emulsion gels, and bigels) regarding the formulation design, fabrication protocols, structure–property relationship, and application in the food industry.

Dr. Hao Cheng
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• food gels
• proteins
• polysaccharides
• lipids
• formulation and structure design
• structure–property relationship
• gel-based foods