Dimensions of food texture: A conceptual discussion

Abstract

Food texture is a collective term for all texture-related features of a food product. A comprehensive description of food texture is therefore practically challenging due to too many parameters that are associated simultaneously with the food. Using every day, non-technical (layman's) language, we attempt in this work to rationalize the different dimensions that contribute to the texture of foods, and we explain the rheological reasons behind the concept. For solid foods, three dimensions are identified being the “hard–soft,” “strong–weak,” and “brittle–plastic.” For liquid foods, three further dimensions are suggested, being “elastic–viscous,” “thick–thin,” and “shear thinning–shear thickening.” As these dimensions are bipolar, for foods where any of the dimensions are not relevant, we conceive that dimension takes on a zero value, aligning at the center of the scale.