Food colloids 2010 -On the road from interfaces to consumers This issue of Advances in Colloid and Interface Science contains manuscripts of invited lectures given at the conference "Food Colloids 2010: On the Road from Interfaces to Consumers" held in Granada (Spain) on 21-24 March 2010. The meetings of this European conference series are organized biennially and are dedicated to the area of food colloids, each time with particular emphasis on actual topics and developments. The meeting in Spain was the 13th in this series.
The research field of food colloids is very broad and spans from the physical chemistry of interfaces and self-assembled bulk phases stabilized by small molecular weight surfactants, macromolecules and particles to the rather complex disperse fluid systems, such as emulsions, dispersions, gels and foams. The biennial meetings are attended by a community of scientists not only from Europe but also from many other places of the world. As the meeting consists of single plenary sessions, contributors consider it a privilege to get the chance for an oral presentation. The Food Colloids 2010 program included only 5 plenary lectures and 39 contributed lectures. In addition, 138 posters were presented as well which discussed a wide variety of scientific topics. The "Food Colloids" meeting in Granada was attended by 172 delegates from 30 different countries. In particular for the 40 research students, we are very grateful for the sponsorship provided by Universidad de Granada, Junta de Andalucía, and Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Gobierno de España.
The meeting in Granada had the subtitle "from interfaces to consumers" which was intended to emphasize the main target of research on food colloidsto help understand the formation and stabilization of food systems in a way that allows producers to provide modern products not only with basic nutrition aspects but also fulfilling more and more ambitious objectives of health and wellness.
The contributions at the meeting were dedicated mainly to four scientific themes: (1) colloid and biopolymer interactions, before and after eating; (2) designing structure to deliver functionality and control reactivity; (3) molecules and particles at interfaces; and (4) new techniques in food colloids. Articles with original findings presented as lectures and posters are published separately in a Special Issue of Food Hydrocolloids. This present issue contains a collection of papers based on plenary and invited lectures. We thank