The Revolution In Texture Testing

Texture analysis is an established technique originating from the 1950s when manufacturers in the food industry began to require a more objective assessment of their products. Textural (or rheological) properties of foods, such as hardness, chewiness, gumminess, tenderness, ripeness, elasticity, and adhesiveness, had been characterised by laboratories using humans to do the qualitative evaluation. Today these same properties are largely measured in a consistently quantifiable manner using a Texture Analyser.

A Texture Analyser works by applying a controlled deformation in either compression or tension to a sample under defined test conditions. (See Figure 1) The user chooses the type of probe that will cause the deformation, then selects the distance that the probe travels to deform the sample, as well as the rate of deformation. The measured parameter is the force load that causes the mechanical deformation; this is continuously recorded during the test. Using different probe geometries, the kinetic forces generated within a sample can be manipulated. For example, the same cracker shown in Figure 1 could also be tested with the punch probe shown in Figure 2.