Q. Study of food texture?
We learnt earlier that texture is observed in terms of tactile sensations i.e. finger feel and mouth feel. Finger feel is sensed before ingestion, by pressing and touching, e.g. to detect the freshness or staleness of bread by hand feel. On the other hand, once you ingest the food the mixed feeling derived mainly due to the activation of palate and teeth, is the mouth feel. During chewing, various kinds of forces are applied which tell us about the texture of the food. The forces are compression, cutting, tensile strength and shearing. These same kinds of forces are imitated in the objective evaluation of textural properties. The term 'mouth feel' can therefore be defined as the mingled experience arising from the sensation of the skin and the mouth during and after ingestion.
You may be wondering why a study of the food texture is important. The study of food texture is important for three reasons:
1. To evaluate the resistance of product against mechanical action such as in mechanical harvesting of fruits and vegetables,
2. To determine the flow properties of a product (what is referred to as rheology) during processing, handling and storage, and
3. To establish the mechanical behaviour of food when consumed.