The physical or the mechanical textural characteristics of foods are related to the reaction of the food to stress and can be divided into primary parameters of hardness, cohesiveness, viscosity, elasticity and adhesiveness and into secondary parameters of brittleness, chewiness and gumminess.
The three secondary parameters of texture profile:
Brittleness – the force with which the material fractures. This is related to hardness and cohesiveness. In brittle materials, cohesiveness, is low and hardness can be either low or high.
Brittle materials often create sound effects when masticated e.g. toast, carrot, celery. The cells offer moderate resistance to fraction by the pressure of the teeth.
It is the properties of certain solids to fail or shatter after very small deformation. In the case of compressed cellular foods, brittleness causes fracture of cell wall material.
Chewiness – the energy required to masticate a solid food product to a sate ready for swallowing. It is related to hardness cohesiveness and elasticity.
It is the texture term relating to the extent to which a product needs chewing, or a measure of the effort to chew.
Gumminess – the energy required to disintegrate a semisolid food to a state ready for swallowing. It is related to hardness and cohesiveness. Gumminess was defined as the product of hardness and cohesiveness. It required energy to disintegrate a semisolid food to a state of readiness for swallowing.
Secondary texture profile
