Application of atomic force microscopy for food polysaccharides

Polysaccharide is a natural polymer that has good gelation, emulsifying, and rheological properties, and has a wide application in the food industry. Meanwhile, its structural properties have a close relationship to its functional behaviors. As a nanotechnology, atomic force microscopy (AFM) could be applied to describe the structural properties of polysaccharides. In this chapter, the morphology, structures, and their changes, as well as the gelling properties of polysaccharides, were revealed using AFM. What’s more, food component mixtures could induce novel properties of food systems for their new structures. Therefore AFM could be used to study the intermolecular interactions in complex systems and investigate the real structure of complexes of natural materials. These will benefit the understanding of the intra and intermolecular interaction forces of polysaccharides and other food components.