Book excerpt: FAT MIMETICS FOR FOOD APPLICATIONS Detailed resource providing insight into the understanding of fat mimetics and their use for the development of food products Fat Mimetics for Food Applications explores strategies for the development of fat mimetics for food applications, including meat, dairy, spreads and baked products, covering all the physical strategies and presenting the main characterization techniques for the study of fat mimetics behaviour. The text further provides insight into the understanding of fat mimetics in food structure and how it affects food products. Fat Mimetics for Food Applications is organized into five sections. The first section provides a historical overview and thermodynamic perspective of the structure-properties relationship in fat mimetics. Section II is devoted to the main materials used for the development of fat mimetics, and the structures that result from different methodologies and approaches. Section III overviews the methodologies used for the characterization of the developed replacers. Section IV contains examples of what has been done in the use of fat mimetics in food. Section V focuses on a future perspective, along with real cases of projects within the industry and a commercial perspective of some examples. Topics covered in Fat Mimetics for Food Applications include: Role of lipids in foods and human nutrition; the current status of fats in the food industry; and food trends as they pertain to fat mimetics Materials for the production of fat mimetics such as natural waxes, sterols, lecithin, mono and di-glycerides, fatty alcohols and fatty acids, polysaccharides and proteins Rheological and texture properties; sensorial aspects of fat mimetics and advanced characterization strategies such as small-angle X-ray scattering and small-angle neutron scattering Fat mimetics’ nutritional and functional properties, along with examples of using in vitro gastrointestinal digestion system to unravel the lipids fat during digestion Examples of the application of fat mimetics in different food products such as meat, dairy, margarine and fat spreads and baked products Fat Mimetics for Food Applications targets researchers, academics, and food industry professionals to boost their capability to integrate different science and technology as well as engineering and materials aspects of fat mimetics for food development.