Structure Formation in Bread and Cakes

Bread Structure
Bread Structure
Calendar
Lectures
Date
Wednesday, 13 May 2026 7:30 pm
Speaker
Dr Martin Whitworth. Principal Scientist at Campden BRI. FIFST, MInstP, CPhys
Campden BRI

Location

& CSTS Zoom Channel ID 912 0723 6181

Market Place, Cirencester GL7

Royal Agricultural University - Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre

Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre, RAU, Cirencester GL7 6JS

Description

Synopsis

Structure formation in bread and cakes
Campden BRI is a Gloucestershire company that has provided technical services to the food and drink industry for over 100 years, including in milling and baking, which is Martin's speciality. 
Martin will summarise some of the achievements in that area.  He is a food physicist and will present on his research in which he has used novel imaging methods to understand the mechanisms of bubble structure formation in bread and cakes, and how we can control it. 
This has included the use X-ray CT scanners, large and small, to make non-destructive measurements of the structure and how it evolves during processing.  Martin has also worked on quality control methods and is the inventor of the C-Cell instrument, used by bakery companies and their suppliers to measure the bubble structure of bread.

About Martin

Martin has worked at Campden BRI and its predecessors since 1992. He has an MA and PhD in physics from Cambridge University, and an impressive number of food research publications. He currently provides support and peer review for our research programme.

Martin specialises in physical characterisation of food products and ingredients including colour, structure and texture, with particular expertise in the application of imaging techniques and digital image analysis.

Martin has experience in cereal science and technology. He is a leading expert on bubble structure of doughs and baked products. He established our imaging laboratory, now part of our Food and Drink Microstructure team, which includes DigiEye colour imaging, hyperspectral NIR imaging and X-ray micro CT.

He was the inventor of the C-Cell instrument for measurement of bread quality, and pioneered the use of X-ray tomography to study bread and cake structure during baking. He also carried out the initial research that led to the Branscan and Fluoroscan instruments for flour quality analysis.

 

Note also the visit in the summer of 2026 to Campden BRI, the world's largest independent membership-based food and drink research organization. It provides scientific, technical, and legislative support and research to the food and drink industry globally.

Date to be confirmed.

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