Surface composition of food powders

As food powder production increases more and more it is time to use new and innovative methodologies to understand the behaviour of these powders regarding their functional properties. A growing number of interesting methods allowing the surface characterization of food powders has been used recently or in development in other powder fields (like medical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, etc.). Up to now, a major problem facing researchers and manufacturers was the lack of a central source of information that provides practical knowledge only focused on food powder surfaces. The first goal of this chapter is to present recent and innovative methodologies used to characterize the surface of food powders. Then, factors affecting the surface composition and some relationships between powder surfaces and functional properties are highlighted.