Tribology: a new tool for the food rheologist’s toolbox

Rheology is a powerful tool that can help link food physicochemical properties, structure, and sensory texture to form a cohesive, fundamental understanding of structural and physicochemical contributions fo food texture. Yeld stresses, fluid flow profiles, and fracture properties of firm solids are relatively easily determined with standard rheometry. However, there are still aspects of food texture that cannot be measured via standard rheological texting. Food texture in the later stages of mastication, when the food is being prepared for swallowing, shows poor correlation to mechanical measurement.

One of the major objective of food tribological research is to relate food sensory texture to mechanical friction measurements. Several studies have found relationship between emulsion mouthfeel terms and friction coefficient.

Helen Joyner – New Food – Issue 3 – Volume 17 -  2014 – pages 11-13. www.newfoodmagazine.com