The TTC SPREADABILITY RIG (HDP/SR*) measures the ease with which a product, such as margarine and table spread, or wax, can be applied in a thin, even layer.
It comprises of a male 90° cone probe and five precisely matched female perspex cone shaped product holders.
The material is either deposited and allowed to set up in the lower cone holders in advance of testing, or is filled with a spatula and then the surface levelled. The sample holders can be stored in frozen, refrigerated or ambient environments before testing of the sample.
A CONVENIENT CONUNDRUM
Convenience is a key driver in the purchasing decision of today’s consumers. As they become increasingly time-poor, there is a surge in demand for easy-to-prepare foods.
This is reflected in the success of the ready meals market which has flourished throughout Europe, even in countries where the home-cooked family meal has long been traditional. Benefitting, in particular, from the growth of the ready meals sector is the meat industry.
In their quest for convenience, consumers are disinclined to compromise on food quality, which leaves manufacturers with the difficult task of balancing the two. Products must be reminiscent of ‘home cooking’, while being quick and easy to prepare. Although taste is a big concern, a product’s texture and mouthfeel is equally important to the consumer’s overall enjoyment. Undesirable texture can significantly reduce the appeal of ready meal foods, resulting in poor sales.
The FORWARD EXTRUSION CELL (HDP/FE*) measures the compression force required for a piston disc to extrude a product through a standard size outlet in the base of the sample container.
The sample container can accommodate base discs with outlet diameters of 3,5,7 or 10mm diameter, their selection depending upon the consistency of the sample.
The complete sample container is located into a centralising insert fitted into the Heavy Duty Platform and a piston disc is attached to the loadcell using a probe adapter.
So
you’re new to Food Texture Analysis? As
a consumer, you’ll already appreciate that texture is a major determinant of
food acceptance.
Food companies use
sensory evaluation panels to check the texture of their products for both
product development and quality control purposes, but many companies supplement
sensory evaluation with instrumental measurements.
You’ll no doubt want to educate yourself and
obtain a background in the science of this field. Let me present the top ten books in our
library that will help you become a ‘Texture Expert’...
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.
