Methods and instruments for the evaluation of food texture: Advances and perspectives

Evaluation of food texture is crucial for product development and quality control in the food industry. To objectively evaluate the texture, the methods to characterize the texture attributes by instruments become increasingly important. This review mainly introduces the advances of instrumental methods by rheology and tribology in food texture studies, with a focus on the instrumental applications in four complex texture attributes, including thickness, astringency, creaminess, and graininess. It discusses the mechanism of food texture perception by finding the optimal instrumental method, but quantitatively correlating the instrumental parameters with sensory texture remains a challenge. Moreover, the perspectives of new cutting-edge technologies including micro-analytical, tactile sensing, and biomimetic techniques, are introduced. The review provides a possible direction that integrating the technologies not only by rheology and tribology, but also by multi-modal tactile sensing, will deepen the understanding of sensory texture perception and advance the instrument development for food texture evaluation.