Food On the Go

According to Kantar Worldpanel, the food-to-go market as a whole rose to be worth £25bn in the year preceding September 2018, and food manufacturers have kept up with rising demand with a stream of innovation that fits into busy, on-the-go schedules. Products are easy to carry around and made simple to eat in single servings, often with forks, spoons or chopsticks included in the packaging. This trend has arrived at the same time as an eco-friendlier generation, with increased interest in plant-based food and dislike of single-use plastics, so products with a high meat content and traditional plastic containers will likely be snubbed in the supermarket. 


The testing process subjected to ‘on the go’ products must also put their packaging on trial to ensure it will survive traditional transport methods as well as being pleasant to use.

A/MTG Mini Tensile Grips

Popcorn is a key example of a food that is eaten while on the move, having seen a rise in popularity since 2010. Unlike simple sweet and salted cinema popcorn of the 1990s, it is now available in every flavour from sherbet to cheddar. Consumers expect a crispy product and the packaging is key to maintaining this. Weak seals will allow moist air to diffuse through to the product, which will cause softening and an unhappy customer. Seal strength is a simple property to measure using a Texture Analyser. A section of the bag’s ribbed seal, of constant dimension, is pulled apart using tensile grips.

A/TCRS Triple Ring Cutting System

The popcorn itself is best measured in bulk, due to the large variation in sample geometry, and the Triple Ring Cutting System is ideal for this purpose. The test head contains three concentric, sharp rings which provide a large cutting surface area in a relatively small device, allowing for a single layer of sample to be tested.

A/RPR Ring Pull Rig

A can of fizzy drink is the most obvious choice of a single drink serving. Cans made by top manufacturers are fine tuned to break at a very specific force and give off a characteristic ‘crack and fizz’ sound. The Ring Pull Rig can be used along with both audio and visual measurements (with the Acoustic Envelope Detector and Video Capture & Synchronisation System) to build up a full picture of the user’s experience when opening a can. 

A/UPS Universal Peel Rig

Yoghurts have long been part of packed lunches. They have come on a long way in recent years, evolving to kombucha-filled, dairy free or vegetable flavoured varieties. However, the general concept remains the same. Pot lids must peel without tearing and the product inside must be thick and creamy. The Universal Peel Rig, consisting of an adjustable sample platform and a peel grip attached to the load cell, is well-suited to measuring the strength of container seals. 

HDP/3PB Three Point Bend Rig

Some lids are designed to be folded into a spoon; it is recommended that these are routinely tested for their rigidity as a material that is too flexible will not be fit for purpose. A three-point bend test is a quick and simple method for measuring the flexural stiffness of a material. 


An assessment of the product itself should include a method that is designed for viscous liquids. Some studies incorrectly apply Textural Profile Analysis to yoghurt, but this method should only be used for large strain compression testing on freestanding samples. A more suitable test would use the Back Extrusion Rig, which gives a full profile of the sample’s consistency.

A/BE Back Extrusion Rig

Small bags of pre-prepared fruit are a popular choice to grab from a supermarket shelf when shopping for a quick lunch. The challenge faced by manufacturers in this case is to ensure the fruit stays fresh and crisp but without excess packaging. Fruit samples should periodically be removed from their bag up until the specified ‘use by’ date and tested using a penetration probe. A 2mm diameter P2 probe is ideal for this purpose, as the puncture force of the skin can be assessed in the same stroke as flesh firmness. The bag itself must not be prone to bursting under the weight of other products during storage. The force required to burst a bag can be measured using a large compression platen. Anomalous low bursting forces should be investigated as part of any quality control procedure.

To find out more about Texture Analysis solutions for your on-the-go product range, talk to Stable Micro Systems today.

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For more information on how to measure texture, please visit the Texture Analysis Properties section on our website.

The TA.XTplus texture analyser is part of a family of texture analysis instruments and equipment from Stable Micro Systems. An extensive portfolio of specialist attachments is available to measure and analyse the textural properties of a huge range of food products. Our technical experts can also custom design instrument fixtures according to individual specifications.

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