Standard Scales for Crispness, Crackliness and Crunchiness in Dry and Wet Foods: Relationship With Acoustical Determinations

Abstract

A trained panel developed rating scales for crispness, crunchiness and crackliness for dry and wet foods based on the auditory perception of selected foods. The newly developed scales were then evaluated by 40 untrained panelists and the sound perception of standard foods was assessed through the analysis of the root mean square (RMS) of the 5-s audio waveforms and multidimensional scaling (MDS PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSCrispness, crunchiness and crackliness are not only important and useful descriptors of food texture, but are also desirable textural qualities in many foods. The lack of consistency in the procedures used for the evaluation of crunchy, crispy and crackly in sensory studies often results in confusion when training expert panels. Research will benefit textural studies through an improvement of consistent textural definitions and development of standard scales and evaluation techniques. 345The crispness, crunchiness and crackliness scales developed and applied in the current study represent a new potential standard frame of reference that may be used for training panelists in texture parameters related to food auditory perception. The scales may be considered illustrations demonstrating full and practical ranges for each texture attribute with regard to analyzing auditory parameters of foods and effective objective tools for assessing panelists in descriptive analysis.

A review: Crispness in dry foods and quality measurements based on acoustic–mechanical destructive techniques

“…i.e. short snapping and longer cracking sounds and the force to bite and chew as perceived on the first bite Duizer and Winger, (2006) One sound event perceived as a sharp, clean, fast, high pitched sound Chauvin et al (2008) Crunchiness Firm and brittle, snaps easily with a typical sound. Sound has a lower pitch, is less loud and longer lasting than for crisp VIickers (1984) Complex failure mechanism that involves repetitive deformation and fracturing of a cell structure.…”

Characterization of texture attributes of raw almond using a trained sensory panel

“…Specifically the almond, when compared as a raw product to almonds with different toasting levels, it was observed that when toast level was higher the number of sounds peaks during chewing increased as well [5]. This result might be due to the fact that on those much more toasted almonds there was less free water, thus less water activity [10].…”

“…In fact, the combination of acoustic recording with mechanical tests resulted in a more reliable and objective way of analyzing the sound emissions and allowed the study of different parameters by correlating them with sensory traits [9,10]. The integration of the energy dissipation with the analysis of sound emission has been shown to be crucial for understanding almond crispness and crunchiness.…”

Instrumental acoustic-mechanical measures of crispness in apples

“…Sound measurement techniques, which are mainly destructive techniques, have been increasingly applied to gain an understanding of the texture and apple fruits quality (De Belie, De Smedt, & De Baerdemaeker, 2000;De Belie & Harker, 2002;Harker, Maindonald, et al, 2002;Zdunek, Frankevych, Konstankiewicz, & Ranachowski, 2008;Zdunek & Bednarczyk, 2006;Zdunek & Konstankiewicz, 2004;Chauvin, Younce, Ross, & Swanson, 2008;Zarifneshat et al, 2010). Destructive testing consists of recording the sounds produced by instrumental compression probes or by the application of biting or chewing forces in the mouth.…”

“…Accordingly, De Belie et al (2000) and De Belie and performed a mechanical test, also recording and analyzing the sounds produced by panelists during chewing. Chauvin et al (2008) reported that the reproducibility of the trained panel is related to the setting up of common frames of reference auditory textural scales among panelists.…”