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Combined sound and force measurements to assess crispness of food products
S. P. PENSON (1), H. Metcalfe (1), M. C. Poole (1). (1) Campden BRI, Chipping Campden, United Kingdom

Crispness is perceived as a combination of touch and sound which has made it difficult to determine instrumentally, despite being a critical quality parameter for many food products. Currently the use of a trained sensory panel provides a means of quality assurance for crispness. The aim of this work was to investigate the development of an objective method for the assessment of products with crispy properties by coordinating the capture and analysis of sound and force data. Initially, crackers were used as a model system for this investigation with ten different commercially available crackers of recognisably different crispness selected and assessed for their crispness by a trained sensory panel. Sound and force data were then collected using a controlled test on a texture analyser fitted with an acoustic envelope detector and a range of parameters compared to the results of the sensory analysis. A new parameter was developed which considered the ratio between force energy and sound energy recorded under these controlled conditions. A Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient of 0.745 (P=0.01) was achieved for the relationship between this new test parameter and the sensory analysis; a correlation which is a better than could be achieved by either force or sound data alone. A smaller range of crackers was then considered to explore the sensitivity of the test. It was shown that as few as 5 replicates were required to find significant differences between the crispness of samples. The test is shown to be applicable to a wide range of products with crispy properties and can provide a useful measure for assessing the crispness of products with crispy properties, particularly in the realms of product development.

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