Instrumental characterisation of textural properties of fluid food

To control or modify the textural properties of food, it is important to understand how the ingredients affect the product structure and how the product is perceived by the consumer. The relationship between these aspects is complex, and a complete understanding of the mechanisms relating structure to sensory perception is still lacking. With this regard, the instrumental characterization of the physical properties of food plays a fundamental role. In this chapter, an overview of the rheological and tribological properties of fluid food as well as of the instrumental techniques to determine these properties is given. The presented physical parameters are linked to a variety of mouthfeel attributes. The significance of the choice of the instrumental techniques and that of the measuring conditions to be able to link instrumental measurements to sensory attributes are analyzed. Examples of how ingredients interactions are related to fat perception and can be used for fat reduction are given.