Fruit Texture: How to measure flesh firmness of non-homogeneous fruits

Testing fruits of non-homogenous nature or variable texture, such as water melons where there is a high seed content, is not only tricky by any puncture, shearing or compression method, but often results in low reproducibility and misleading data.

In any of these tests, the data may show wide variances between maximum and minimum force resistance, depending upon whether the probe or fixture meets with less or more seeds or variable texture when tested. By penetrating the product in several areas at the same time, the Multiple Puncture Probe produces an averaging effect and is therefore more representative.