Food Texture

It is defined in many ways, in which can be described by various structural elements of food are arranged into a micro and/or macrostructure, and external visual display of this results from these structures.

Most of foods are complex mixtures of materials of diverse physical and chemical properties. Because of this, the foods cover a wide range of physical properties from fluid Newtonian materials to the most complex disperse systems with semi-solid character.

How can Food Texture be evaluated
(Mechanical tests or sensory analysis)

• Light and electron microscopy
• Xray diffraction analysis, gives a picture with reference to crystalline structure
• Differential scanning calorimetry, which provides information about melting and solidifcation and other phase transitions
• Particle size analysis and sedimentation methods provide information about particle size distribution and particle shape.

Due to the complexity of foods texture of food cannot always be described easily and is difficult to establish a uniform measure for texture.

Terms used in textural properties

• Consistancy with aspects of texture that relats to flow and deformation
• Hardness can be defined as resistance of deformation
• Firmness, could be the same as hardness but can be used to describe the property of a substance able to resistance deformation under its own weight
• Brittleness, property of fracturing.