From Chocolate to Concrete: Linking Formulation, Processing and Performance in Complex Materials

Daniel Hodgson | Director of ECFP

Many industrial materials do not sit neatly within the boundaries of a single discipline. Products such as chocolate or concrete evolve through multiple physical states during their lifetime: from mixtures of dry powders, to flowable slurries or pastes during processing, and finally to solid composites whose microstructure determines performance. Understanding and controlling these transitions is central to both formulation science and materials science, yet the two communities do not always share a common focus, understanding, or language.

In this talk, I will discuss several industrial systems which naturally span these disciplines. Examples including chocolate, concrete, and ceramics show how common physical parameters, such as particle interactions, suspension rheology, jamming, and microstructural evolution under flow, govern behaviour across sectors that are often treated as unrelated. Chocolate, for example, evolves from a dry granular mixture to a flowable dense suspension during processing, solidifying into a filled solid composite for sale, and finally transforming into an emulsion during eating. Similar transitions are seen across other industrial sectors, and these systems pose remarkably similar challenges.

Crucially, these transitions also represent key leverage points for sustainability: formulation and processing choices made early can strongly influence energy use, material efficiency, waste generation and ultimately product lifetime and performance. Drawing on work at the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership (ECFP), which combines advanced rheology, in-situ imaging, multiscale characterisation and modelling, I will show how developing mechanistic insight across disciplines enables industry to link formulation, processing and final properties in a predictive way. I will argue that closer collaboration, and a shared physical language, between formulation scientists and materials scientists from across sectors is essential for designing, processing, and scaling novel sustainable products.