Instrumental Food Texture Evaluation in Relation to Human Perception

This article reviews the relationship between food texture or mouthfeel which human perceives and objective properties of foods which instruments measure. Instrumental measurements overviewed cover 3 domains of physicochemical properties which govern food texture, including mechanical, geometrical, and moisture- and fat-related surface properties. Research questions in this review consist of research subjects, tests in focus to reach to the research subjects, and new findings from the tests compared to counter tests (i.e., conventional method), through which facilitation of literature search by readers is intended. Tests in focus correspond to instrumental measurements which take mechanics of food oral processing in human into account, and texture estimation and prediction through correlation with mechanical property is featured. This is followed by imaging analysis for evaluation of geometrical property and tribology measurement for evaluation of moisture- and fat-related surface property for detailed description of texture from different and comprehensive approaches. Most pieces of research presented in this review are concerned with texture evaluation using polysaccharide emulsions, gels, and solutions as a model food, including the authors’ works, referring to great contribution of colloid technology to progress of texture study.