340 Potential applications of data visualization in food research and manufacturing.

J. S. JAVENKOSKI (1,2), J. C. Alameda (2), C. B. Bushell (3), and S. J. Schmidt (1). (1) Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801; (2) National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820; (3) School of Art and Design, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820.

Collectively, product researchers and developers employed in the food industry capture, analyze, and interpret large sets of data in their daily tasks. The data is used to make time- and budget-critical decisions on ingredient procurement, product formulation, processing, packaging, and distribution. For many firms, the relative size and complexity of these data sets offers significant challenges in data management and interpretation. The rapid evolution of high performance computer hardware and software offers food scientists powerful new tools for creating meaningful visual representations of computationally intensive tasks such as modeling and animating molecular, polymeric (or “mesoscopic”), and macroscopic structures in food materials. Visualization of these structures is crucial to understanding their functionality in food systems. Recently developed visualization tools offer food scientists several advantages: 1) enhanced insight into dynamic structural phenomena in food systems, 2) improved presentation of analytical data, and 3) predictive simulations for product development decisions. This presentation reviews selected visualization tools and their potential applications in food research and manufacturing.