Methods in
Food Analysis

Texture and rheology properties, such as viscosity, are key properties which
consumers evaluate while determining the quality and acceptability of fruit
and vegetables and manufactured products. Understanding food texture
requires an integration of the physical, physiological and psychophysical
elements of oral processing. The knowledge of texture and rheology has
many applications in the food industry, i.e., from designing aspects of
equipment, bulk handling systems, to new product development and
quality control of foods. Texture can be defi ned as “the group of physical
characteristics that arise from the structural elements of the food, and are
sensed primarily by the feeling of touch, are related to the deformation,
disintegration and fl ow of the food under a force, and are measured
objectively by functions of mass, time, and distance”. The rheological
behavior of fl uid foods is determined by measurements of shear stress
versus shear rate/time or elastic/viscous modulus versus frequency,