Neutron scattering is a powerful tool for the study of soft condensed matter. The use of neutron techniques in combination with traditional characterisation techniques used in food science can provide a unique insight into novel food materials, providing the knowledge to develop new formulations. As these methods have traditionally been poorly utilised in food science research, this paper highlights the potential of neutron scattering techniques in this arena and provides some recent examples in its application across food components with an outlook of some potentially interesting applications. © 2009, Elsevier Ltd.