The FRACTURE WEDGE SET (A/WEG) comprises of upper and lower wedges each with a cutting angle of 30° and 30mm width.
The lower wedge is fixed directly to the base of the Texture Analyser and the upper wedge is connected directly to the loadcell.
Typical examples include cheese and vegetables which are held on the lower wedge and the force to fracture is measured. The maximum sample width is limited to 30mm.
I hadn't given my
sister's Coeliac Disease much thought until she invited me for a Sunday tea
party last weekend.
Whilst, as a food
scientist, I appreciated that she had some adapting to do in her diet, I hadn't
fully appreciated just what a wide range of products she'd been through to
select the products that were as close as possible to the palatability of the
gluten-loaded products she used to enjoy.
When
gluten is removed from baked products, taste and mouthfeel are usually
compromised – and it’s difficult for consumers to find gluten-free alternatives
that taste good and have desirable texture properties. Gluten-free bakery
product formulations have the tendency to be dense, have no structure, crumble
easily and are prone to quicker staling.
Bakery formulators are striving to find solutions to these problems and
quantify the effects of their efforts.
BENDING FORCE: the physical nature of some products make them more suitable for testing via a bending test.
Generally the higher the force to bend (usually up to the point of break) the firmer the sample.
The force and distance references at the point of break provide a measure of BREAK STRENGTH by this action.
STIFFNESS is associated with a material that cannot easily be bent and therefore has a high degree of hardness and usually lacks flexibility.
FLEXIBILITY is the opposite of this and is a characteristic of a product that can be bent, flexed or deformed to a much higher degree of deformation before failing.
The COMPACTABILITY/COMPRESSIBILITY of a product is its ability to be compacted or compressed, usually to a large degree of deformation.
This can be a required property of, for example, the formation of cosmetic powder tablets or formation of tablets from granules.
However it may also be undesirable, as would be true of a large amount of packaging material which is usually chosen for its ability to protect a product and therefore resist compaction to a reasonable extent.
ABRASION is the erosion of material from a solid surface by the action of another solid.
When material is removed by contact with hard particles, abrasive wear occurs. The particles either may be present at the surface of a second material or may exist as loose particles between two surfaces.
Abrasive materials are widely used across a variety of industries for polishing, grinding, honing and other similar processes. The efficacy of these materials relies on their frictional properties, which can be calculated as the force required to draw the material across a given surface. Assessment of these properties will allow manufacturers to evaluate the suitability of their products for a specific use. The test results will also highlight differences between grades or brands of abrasive materials.
CONSISTENCY is commonly the textural property possessed by dairy products, sauces, syrups and pharmaceuticals lotions (i.e. fluid products).
It most often makes use of the back extrusion rig for its measurement. Consistency relates to the 'firmness', 'thickness' or 'viscosity' of a liquid or fluid semi-solid.
Stirring a fluid or semifluid food with a spoon or a finger is frequently used by consumers to give an indication of viscosity or consistency.
STRINGINESS/SHORTNESS is the degree (distance) to which a product hangs on the probe when the probe is withdrawn.
It is a major characteristic of mozzarella cheese or adhesives but is also commonly the textural property possessed by sauces (e.g. ketchup, dessert sauces), confectionery glazes, baked product toppings and undoubtedly, syrups.
In the adhesive industry this characteristic is sometimes referred to as 'legging' or 'tailing', as stringiness may result in the formation of filaments or threads when the adhesive surfaces are separated.
FRICTION is a phenomenon that is part of our daily lives - in one sense we would find most difficult to survive without it yet in another it can be most expensive to minimise.
It can be simply identified as the resisting force that arises when one surface slides, or tries to slide, over another. It is commonly the textural property measured from packaging materials, shaving gels, cosmetic sponges, etc.
Friction can be a limitation to us; for example, the friction of packaging can be a major limiting factor in the speed of packing machines. Additives are often used to improve the lubricity of surfaces, this is known as 'slip'. Polythene is added to packaging to improve slip characteristics.
