Oral Processing of Plant-Based Foods: From Soft Matter Science to Sensory Perception

Consumers' preferences for foods and food ingredients are shifting, with a greater emphasis on increasing the amount of plant-based options in the diet. Plant-based foods are complex soft materials - colloidal suspensions, emulsions, gels, and foams - that undergo dramatic structural transformations during mastication and swallowing. From formulating original plant-based products to designing plant-based analogues of animal-derived foods, understanding these transformations requires a deep knowledge of the structure-function relationships governing every component in a food at every stage of oral processing. There is a rich history of research into different aspects of oral processing, but there is no clear comprehensive framework that connects the soft matter physics of plant-based food matrices - their rheology, tribology, and colloidal behaviour - to the mechanical and biochemical processes occurring in the oral cavity.This Research Topic aims to advance the fundamental understanding of how plant-based food materials behave as soft matter systems during oral processing. We seek contributions that elucidate the rheological, tribological, colloidal, and interfacial mechanisms underlying texture perception in plant-based foods. Key questions include: How do plant proteins interact with salivary films to produce delubrication and astringency? What roles do protein aggregation state, fat droplet architecture, and fibre alignment play in bridging microstructure to texture perception? How can colloidal design strategies - oleogels, Pickering emulsions, structured gels - replicate the oral breakdown behaviour of animal-derived foods? By bridging the divide between ingredient-level characteristics, material microstructure, analytical measurements, and models for oral breakdown, this collection aims to build a soft-matter-based framework that connects the physics of plant-based food matrices to their textural performance during consumption.We welcome manuscripts addressing the soft matter foundations of oral processing in plant-based foods across three themes:-Structure and Material Science: structuring of plant proteins and food matrices; emulsion and gel design for plant-based analogues; protein-polysaccharide and starch-protein interactions during oral breakdown; fat mimicry and lipid structuring; fermentation and enzymatic modification for texture engineering; additive manufacturing with defined oral breakdown behaviour.-Measurement and Methodology: rheology and tribology of plant-based food systems; salivary interactions with plant proteins; bolus formation and swallowing dynamics; instrumental-to-perception mapping; multi-scale modelling of oral breakdown; microstructure–texture–perception relationships.-Texture Perception and Soft Matter–Sensory Relationships: soft matter determinants of mouthfeel; material property–flavour interactions; comparative analysis of plant-based and animal-based food matrices; rheological design for vulnerable populations.Topic Editor Michael W. Boehm is employed by Mondelēz. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject. Topic editors: Michael Boehm, Sorin-Cristian Vladescu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80527/oral-processing-of-plant-based-foods-from-soft-matter-science-to-sensory-perception