One of the major challenges we face as humankind is supplying a growing world population with sufficient and healthy foods. Although from a worldwide perspective sufficient food is produced, locally, the situation can be dire. Furthermore, the production needs to be increased in a sustainable manner for future generations, which also implies prevention of food waste, and making better use of the available resources. How to contribute to this as food technologists is an ultimate question, especially since the tools that can investigate processes at relevant time scales, and dimensions, are lacking. Here we propose the use of microtechnology and show examples of how this has led to new insights in the fields of ingredient isolation (filtration), and emulsion/foam formation, which will ultimately lead to better-defined products. Furthermore, microfluidic tools have been applied for testing ingredient functionality, and for this, various examples are discussed that will expectedly contribute to making better use of more sustainably sourced starting materials (e.g., novel protein sources). This review will wrap up with a section in which we discuss future developments. We expect that it will be possible to link food properties to the effects that foods create in vivo. We thus expand the scope of this review that is technical in nature, toward physiological functionality, and ultimately to rational food design that is targeted to improve human health.

人类面临的主要挑战之一就是为不断增长的世界人口提供充足而健康的食物。尽管从世界范围来看，当地生产的粮食足够，但情况可能很严峻。此外，需要以可持续的方式为子孙后代增加产量，这也意味着要防止粮食浪费，并更好地利用现有资源。作为食品技术人员，如何为这一问题做出贡献是一个终极问题，尤其是因为缺少可在相关时间范围和规模上调查过程的工具。在这里，我们建议使用微技术，并举例说明这如何在成分分离（过滤）和乳液/泡沫形成领域带来新见解，最终将使产品定义更清晰。此外，微流体工具已经用于测试成分的功能，为此，讨论了各种示例，这些示例有望有助于更好地利用更具可持续性的来源的原材料（例如，新型蛋白质来源）。这篇评论将以一部分讨论我们的未来发展。我们希望将食品的特性与食品在体内产生的影响联系起来是可能的。因此，我们将本综述的范围从技术上扩展到生理功能，并最终扩展到旨在改善人类健康的合理食品设计。这篇评论将以一部分讨论我们的未来发展。我们希望将食品的特性与食品在体内产生的影响联系起来是可能的。因此，我们将本综述的范围从技术上扩展到生理功能，并最终扩展到旨在改善人类健康的合理食品设计。这篇评论将以一部分讨论我们的未来发展。我们希望将食品的特性与食品在体内产生的影响联系起来是可能的。因此，我们将本综述的范围从技术上扩展到生理功能，并最终扩展到旨在改善人类健康的合理食品设计。