Abstract
This study assessed the usefulness of the miniature Kramer shear cell to determine relevant instrumental parameters of solid foods and bolus counterparts, examining their relationships with oral processing behaviors to obtain greater knowledge about the texture perception process. Six solid foods with different textural properties were tested. Bolus mechanical properties were also determined by means of cone penetration tests and rheological measurements, and their particle size distributions by sieving. Oral processing behavior (chewing time, number of chews, chewing rate, eating rate) and food saliva uptake (SU) of a young volunteer and a panel of 39 untrained participants were analyzed. The Kramer mechanical properties were very suitable for detecting different levels of food and bolus textural hardness and fracturability and the associated degrees of fragmentation achieved during mastication. Chewing time and number of chews were highly correlated with Kramer food and bolus mechanical properties for the single subject and for the panel’s oral processing behaviors. For the single subject, SU and eating rate also showed strong correlations with food and bolus mechanical properties, unlike chewing rate and food moisture content (FMC). In contrast, eating rate, FMC, and SU did not vary with the oral activities of the panel.
Highlights
Oral food processing is an essential, complex, dynamic process closely related to sensory perception, especially perception of food texture and flavor [1]
Carrot (Figure 1c), peanut (Figure 1e), and potato chip (Figure 1f) force–distance curves each had a jagged appearance due to fracture events associated with their different fracturability levels, and with the sound pressure level (SPL) curves recorded during their Kramer tests
As all the average values of the physical measurements were the same in the two categorical principal component analyses (CATPCA); the results indicate a different contribution of food mechanical properties to the oral processing behavior of a single young subject or a group of subjects with various ages
Summary
Oral food processing is an essential, complex, dynamic process closely related to sensory perception, especially perception of food texture and flavor [1]. Texture perception is a dynamic mechanism that depends on food properties and their changes during oral processing [2]. According to [3], for any given food it is essential, firstly, to ascertain its dominant textural attributes and the fundamental mechanical parameters to which they are primarily linked in order, secondly, to determine the parameters that are most important. Crispy/crunchy character is an important sensory characteristic of some solid foods on which consumers base their appreciation, and in addition, crispness and crunchiness are acoustic attributes, and the pitch of the sound emitted when the food is bitten or chewed is another characteristic aspect of both attributes. Crispy behavior likely implies that the energy dissipated due to viscoelasticity, Foods 2020, 9, 613; doi:10.3390/foods9050613 www.mdpi.com/journal/foods
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