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2. Falcone P.M., Chillo S., Giudici P., Del Nobile M.A. 2007. Measuring Rheological Propertiesfor Applications in Quality Assesment of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar: Description and PreliminaryEvaluation of a Model. Journal of Food Engineering. 80, 234-240.In this research, a study of fundamental rheological properties of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar (TBV) was conductedby using a liquid food model system. With this purpose, aqueous solutions containing the main chemicalconstituents of TBV were prepared according to a Central Composite Design (CCD) and flow experiments wereconducted by using a controlled-strain rotational rheometer. Surface response methodology was used successfullyto describe effects of the chemical composition on the rheological behavior of the investigated TBV-like modelsystem (TBV-M). It was found that glucose mass fraction and glucose to fructose ratio strongly affected thesteady shear viscosity of TBV-M and that the viscosity changed with temperature according to the Arrhenius’slaw in the range of 20–60 of TBV quality before performing of sensorial analysis as specified by the specificproduction disciplinary.3. Del Nobile M.A., Chillo S., Mentana A., Baiano A. 2007. Use of the Generalized MaxwellModel for Describing the Stress Relaxation Behavior of Solid-Like Foods. Journal of FoodEngineering. 78, 978-983.A comprehensive study on the ability of the generalized Maxwell model to describe the stress relaxation behaviorof food matrices is presented in this work. Five different food matrices were chosen as representative of a widerange of foods: agar gel, meat, ripened cheese,‘‘mozzarella’’ cheese and white pan bread. The above foods matriceswere selected on the base of their macro-structure and compressive stress strain behavior. Stress relaxationtests were run on the above food matrices at room temperature. The relaxation times distribution function used inthis investigation to describe the viscoelastic behavior of the investigated foods was obtained by summing twonormal distribution functions with the means equal to zero. Results show that the proposed model satisfactorilyfits the experimental data. Moreover, it was also found a substantial difference between the relaxation times distributioncurves of the investigated bulky and spongy foods.4. Falcone P.M., Baiano A., Conte A., Mancini L., Tromba G., Zanini F., Del Nobile M.A. 2006.Imaging Techniques for the Study of Food Microstructure a Review. Advances in Food andNutrition Research. 51, 205-263.Sensorial and mechanical characteristics of food products are strongly affected by the food structural organizationthat can be studied at molecular, microscopic and macroscopic levels. Since the microstructure affects foodsensorial properties, foods having a similar microstructure also have a similar behavior. Studies on food microstructurecan be performed by means of a large variety of techniques allowing the generation of data in the formof images. With the development of more powerful tools, such as the X-ray computed tomographic scanners,both two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital images of the food internal structure can be readily acquiredwith high resolution and contrast and without any sample preparation. These images can be processed by meansof the fractal and the stereological analysis in order to quantify a number of structural elements. Fractal analysisallows the investigation of the fractal geometry in both 2D and 3D digital images. Stereology, instead, allows theobtainment of 3D features from 2D images. These data processing techniques represent new promising approachesto a full characterization of complex internal structures. Such advances in food evaluation open newhorizons for the development of mathematical and computational models able to individuate the interactions betweenproduct microstructure and their mechanical properties.SISTAL - SOCIETA’ ITALIANA DI SCIENZE E TECNOLOGIE ALIMENTARIDipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agroalimentari, Università degli Studi della TusciaVia San Camillo de Lellis, 01100 ViterboTel.: 0761- 35 74 94/7 , Fax: 0761- 35 74 98, e-mail: mmoresi@unitus.it128