Getting the texture of foods right and making that "feel" consistent during processing is one of the most important quality control characteristics a food maker can give to theirproducts.

The characterisation of texture commonly falls into two main groups, based on sensory and instrumental methods of analysis. Sensory analysis includes the use of human testers using smell, taste,sound and touch to determine food quality. However their opinions can be subject to a wide variation. Hiring and training people for the job is expensive.

Instrumental methods of assessing texture can be carried out under more defined and controlled conditions. Changes in ingredient levels can also lead to changes in product characteristics that aredifficult to measure by humans, such as the variation in the firmness of a product due to sugar content.

Therefore mechanical tests are often used to measure textures such as hardness, brittleness, fracturability, adhesiveness, elasticity and strength.

With a capacity of 1000N (102kg) in compression or tension, Food Technology's TMS-Pro is capable of testing the textures of the toughest foods.

It can repeatably measure from tenths of a gram to 100 kilograms, according to the company.

The machine is portable. Master and operator modes can be accessed with password protection. Simple and advanced testing routines can be written by the user by pulling down menus and fillingin dialogue boxes.

Calculations and presentations can be made the same way. For in depth analysis, users can manually zoom into the graphs and highlight points of interest.

The system comes with the company's Texture Lab Pro software package for Windows PCs and an FX-1000 Newton intelligent load cell.

External links to companies or organisations mentioned in this story:

• Food Technology Corp.