Although food is a fascinating material, i.e., the most relevant material for all of us, guaranteeing our survival, most people still do not relate food to science. We easily overlook the scientific input needed to make good and healthy food. Food is also a quite complex and sometimes heterogeneous material. The available theoretical tools or experimental methods are not always entirely adapted to the study of such complex systems.

Consequently, classical food science has been evolving in line with the progress being made in other science branches, such as Soft Matter Science. Understanding foods as soft materials, i.e., thinking in terms of e.g. aggregation and gel or glass formation, inter- or intra-molecular or particle interactions, phase separation or self-assembled structure formation, is becoming increasingly fashionable and exciting. In the present contribution, Dr. Leser will discuss some examples showing how controlling hierarchical structuring or balancing self-assembly and constituent interactions with nutritionally active components will allow us to come up with new product design routes.