Tittle

Measurement of Texture in Foods by Means of Texture Analyzer

Objectives

To observe the magnitude of deformations imposed and localized yielding within the product
tested.

Introduction

Texture refers how the physical attributes of a food texture are processed by the brain
during mastication. Characteristic like hard, soft, crispy, crunchy, are used by consumers to
describe food texture. Measurement of textural properties can be traced back to the way the
product grown, or reared, while food processed food, the textural properties can be used to
optimized process. The measurements have a high correlation with the various sensory
attributes associated with textural quality. Texture testing has applications across a wide
range of food types, including baked goods, cereals, confectionaries, snacks dairy, fruit,
vegetables, gelatins, meat, poultry, fish, pasta and even pet food (Graves E. G., 2016). Food
texture analysis can highlight quality improvement opportunities throughout the supply chain
and the production process. At the research and development stage, new or alternative
ingredients can be compared with existing ingredients. In addition, food texture analysis is
used for the measurement and control of process variations such as temperature, humidity and
cooking time (Wiley et al., 1969).

Material:

Texture analyzer

Gummy

Bread

Biscuit

Fish Cracker
Procedure:

1. The instrument has been set up on a solid and level surface. The electrical supply has
been corrected and plugged in.
2. The machine has been switched on and waited for the electronic of instrument to be
stabilized.
3. The instrument was first calibrated before start testing by attached the probe that had
likely to be used for experiment and the calibration was started.
4. All the information on the features of different probes can be found in the texture
analysis applications directory.

TA test

1. The TA tab on the top panel was clicked.

2. The ‘calibrate force’ was selected from the calibration menu, the instruction was
followed and clicked on the ‘Next’.
3. The calibration weight was used.
4. The calibration weight value was entered in gram and then the weight was placed on
the calibration platform.
5. ‘Next’ was clicked and waited until the calibration was completed. ‘Finish’ was
clicked when it already finished and the weight removed.
6. The ‘TA tab’ was clicked again and then ‘calibrate’ was clicked to select the calibrate
height. After a probe height calibration screen had popped up, ‘ok’ was clicked and
the probes had lowered until it touched the platform and then came back up.
7. The calibration was completed and it was moved on to the next step. The probe can be
changed by clicked on the ‘TA tab’ and then moved the probe, but always need to
remember to calibrate the probe height after moving the probe.
8. The setting of the texture analyser can be adjusted by go the ‘TA tab’ and ‘TA setting’
was selected and the ‘library’ was clicked on the setting screen. The TA sequence had
been chosen appropriately based on the experiment.
9. The right platform depending on the type of probe are used based on the chosen test.
10. The sample was loaded on the platform and the ‘TA tab’ on the computer was clicked.
11. ‘Run a test’ was selected.
12. The test was named and the folder that wanted to save the result was chosen.
13. ‘Start test’ was clicked and the instrument will start running.
 14. A result of graph will appear on the screen when the test was completed.

TPA test

1. The operator was set up at the trigger value, target deformation (travel distance into
the sample) and the test speed using the TPA menu screen:

2. The operator depresses the start button to begin the test. In a TPA test the
compression and return strokes of both cycles occurred at the programmed test speed.
Target deformation for both cycles begins at the trigger position of the first cycle.

During the test the running screen was shown below:

3. TPA cycles was counted to show the number of cycles remaining. Deformation and
Load were remained display during the test.

Test results were shown on the reporting screen:

a. Hardness1 was the peak load of the first compression cycle.

b. Hardness2 was the peak load of the second compression cycle.
c. Cohesiveness was the ratio of A2/A1. A2 is the area under the compression stoke
of the second cycle and A1 is the area under the compression stoke of the first
cycle. If the structure of the sample was completed destroy on the first
compression, this ratio is zero. If the sample is perfectly elastic and not damage at
all by the first compression this ratio is 1.0 Most food products will fall
somewhere in between 0 and 1.
 d. Springiness is a measure of how far the sample returns after being compressed to
the target deformation.
e. Adhesiveness is a measure of stickiness and is calculated as the area under the
negative peak as probe withdraws after the first compression.

4. The right platform depending on the type of probe are used based on the chosen test.
5. The sample was loaded on the platform.
6. ‘Run a test’ was selected.
7. The test was named and the folder that wanted to save the result was chosen.
8. ‘Start test’ was clicked and the instrument will start running.
9. A result of graph will appear on the screen when the test was completed.