News > The Importance of Texture Analysis in Food

The Importance of Texture Analysis in Food

Research has shown that there are three main deciding factors for the success of a food product on the market: Texture, Flavour & Appearance.

As Texture can represent the rheological properties of a food product, the ability to reproduce the texture of such products in a consistent and reliable way, is becoming extremely important for food manufacturers. One can say that food texture is not only a key influencer in a customer’s selection and preference process, but more importantly, can lead to repeat purchases.

The main objective is to characterise your food product, your sample, in a way that best represents their perception by human senses.

For the last five decades, the food industry has invested heavily into academic research for an instrumental means of assessing the quality of their products. Having a more sophisticated way of objectively quantifying certain characteristics of food products that would have been subjective otherwise, is the purpose behind the industry’s investment in this Texture Analysis technology.

And instruments like the CTX or the CT3 Texture Analyser from Brookfield Ametek are able to provide the industry with exactly what they require – and then some.

How It Works?

Characterisation of food texture generally falls into two categories of sensory or instrumental methods of analysis.

Sensory analysis: makes use of the human senses of touch, sight, smell, taste and sound. Sensory science employs trained, human panellists under very controlled conditions to focus on specific sensory attributes of the product in question.

Instrumental texture analysis: can only characterise properties detected by the sense of touch. Evaluation of food texture by touch involves the use of fingers, lips, tongue, palate and teeth. All these characteristics of mouth-feel therefore provide a very nice complement to sensory analysis.

The use of instrumental methods for texture analysis is becoming more popular in the food industry because it is a fast and cost-effective method of food texture analysis.

The CT3 Texture Analyser is an easy-to-use instrument which measures the amount of force required to penetrate or pull apart an object with a probe appropriate to the food item under test.

The CTX Texture Analyser is an advanced model for the same type of compression and tension testing of materials. It allows quick, efficient testing for busy labs that need to improve productivity while maintaining quality. The big improvement of the CTX has to do with a more flexible range of interchangeable load cells (from 100g to 100kg) and also the addition of the advanced version of the Texture Pro Software which provides full support for 21CFR Part 11 requirements on user access and data integrity.

There are many probes and fixtures available for many applications. (See some examples on our website.) For meats, you can use a cutting blade; for sliced breads, a cylinder probe; for cookies and crackers, a snap test jig; and for packaged goods, a dual grip assembly, for example.

Both the CTX and the CT3 Texture Analysers can be used across a wide range of applications and in different environments including R&D, Quality Control, shelf life studies, new product development, scale-up approvals and product matching in food applications (low calorie imitations of standard brand products).

There are many physical properties of your food sample that you can determine with Texture, such as:

• Hardness
• Adhesive force
• Cohesiveness
• Chewiness
• Gumminess
• Springiness
• Brittleness

Instrumental texture analysis can be applied across a broad range of market segments in the food industry to include:

• Hydrocolloids (thickening agents)
• Dairy
• Baking
• Meats and Fish
• Confectionary
• Surimi
• Fruit and Vegetables
• Pasta
• Snacks
• Packaging (tear strength to open seals)

For more information on the benefits that texture analysis can bring, Brookfield Ametek recommends reviewing the most widely read publication used in both academia and industry entitled "Food Texture and Viscosity: Concept and Measurement", authored by Malcom Bourne, published by The Academic Press.

Where Can I Find Out More About Texture?

You can check out the CTX Texture Analyser and the CT3 Texture Analyser on our website. If you have a need that is not covered in this range, please contact our Sales Team.

Discover Viscosity, Texture & Powder with Lab Unlimited!

Keep an eye on our Blog, Twitter & LinkedIn pages to keep updated in regards to our Viscosity & Texture Workshops, as well as Powder Seminars!

These events are great opportunities to discuss your application with the experts!

To make sure you don't miss this chance, sign up to get notifications regarding these events, simply by filling out the form below.