Three-dimensional image reconstruction procedure for food microstructure evaluation

Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) is a noninvasive technique for evaluating the microstructure of foods and other materials. CLSM provides several sequential subsurface layers of two-dimensional (2-D) images. An image processing algorithm was developed to reconstruct these 2-D layers into st three-dimensional (3-D) network. Microstructure of fat globules in cheese was used as an example application. The validity of the image reconstruction algorithm was evaluated by processing several layered digital images of known shape and size. Differences between the original and reconstructed images were 2-5% in terms of object size and 1-8% in terms of shape.