Optimizing Food Texture And Rheology

How important are crispness, crunchiness or spreadability to your products? Such characteristics and properties play an important role in attracting consumers to your product, getting them to try it again and making it a winner. The sooner we realize the roles that texture, rheology and mouthfeel play in making a food appealing to consumers, the sooner we'll create more appealing products.

We use texture as an important criteria when determining a product's quality-whether it's fresh or not. When a food produces a hard, soft, crisp or moist feeling in the mouth, we find a basis for measuring its quality. Although organoleptic properties may be significant, they may be one of the least understood properties-often neglected by product developers.

When creating a new food product or redesigning an existing one, researchers need to pay close attention to textural as well as rheological properties. With this in mind Food Technology Intelligence, Inc., publisher of the international newsletter, Emerging Food R&D Report, has just revised its report analyzing technical advances aimed at improving food product texture and rheology. This report, Optimizing Food Texture and Rheology, gives you a first-hand look at new techniques and processes that will help you improve the mouthfeel and other characteristics of your products. For example, in its pages you'll learn that:

• You can control lipid crystallization during texturization of dairy spreads
• Starch-lipid composites improve texture and flavor
• Hydraulic pressure rapidly tenderizes meat The processes discussed in the report are under development and have commercial potential. In some cases, researchers have completed development and are looking to license their technology or collaborate in other ways to commercialize a product or technique. Or companies may be looking for partners to help expand applications and markets.

The Challenge

Consumers are demanding more appealing products that taste great, function correctly and look appetizing. They have sent a strong message that they aren't willing to trade off any of their most desired food attributes. Moreover, they are expecting more from their favorite brands. With the myriad of new product introductions each year-many of which are not successful-often it is the more appealing products that overcome marketplace hurdles.

For these reasons, product developers must consider the impact that organoleptic attributes have on consumer acceptance. This may not be easy. Texture is a composite property related to other physical properties-viscosity and elasticity. Describing texture or mouthfeel in a single value obtained from an instrument or sensory panel is quite difficult. Mouthfeel is difficult to define because it involves a product's physical and chemical interaction in the mouth from initial perception on the palate, to first bite, through mastication to swallowing. This new report from Food Technology Intelligence will give product developers insight into techniques that improve a product's texture, rheology and mouthfeel.

Learn about several developments, including:

• Ice-modifying proteins that may help ice cream stay smooth and creamy.
• Enzymatically modified gluten with better foaming properties.
• An extruded whey protein meat extender.
• A biomechanical compression technique that predicts cooked beef tenderness.

Optimizing Food Texture and Rheology reviews significant developments in the field, discussing potential applications and the status of research. You'll also learn how to take advantage of new techniques through licensing or other collaborations. Contact information is provided for the key researchers involved. This report will help you track new developments and contact experts with whom you can collaborate on innovative research. Order Optimizing Food Texture and Rheology and tap into innovations that will help you meet your product development goals.